At least Rory Stewart would have been a real challenge against Boris in a debate as he knows he is unlikely to get a Cabinet or Senior position in a Boris Government whereas Hunt will surely take a senior cabinet position (even deputy) so will not give a real challenge – yet again personal interest above the interest of the country.
Let’s hope Rory Stewart and some of his supporters will be effective backbenchers- whether Boris or Hunt get the top job the fact that there started out to be so many candidates in the leadership battle shows that the Tory Party are internally so fragmented and internal fighting could be their total down fall. Boris only has about 100 job roles to give out to keep Tory MPs on side – these cover Cabinet, Ministerial position, Deputies, Private Secretaries, Chairs of Parliamentary Groups etc.
Boris has 143 on board but he has 143 who are not – all of them can become a force of united disgruntled back benchers. The numbers still don’t in anyway show that a Boris Brexit plan will get through Parliament.