Labour now has a huge secret advantage over the Conservatives

Parliament rises on Thursday for summer recess but the Conservative Party will not get a break, writes Marie Le Conte

The Labour Party, on the other hand, can get the sunglasses and flip-flops out early (PA)

Many things became apparent in last night’s TV debate between the Conservative leadership hopefuls. There is no love lost between any of them; there are no obvious and immediate solutions to the cost of living crisis; the lighting in the ITV studio was considerably more flattering than Channel 4’s. Oh, and the candidates looked knackered.

Gone was the charm Tom Tugendhat had unleashed on Friday. Gone were Kemi Badenoch’s colourful anecdotes. Penny Mordaunt’s hair looked glossy but her heart didn’t seem to quite be in it. Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss seemed a bit more alive, perhaps because they kept failing to hide the contempt they hold each other in. Whatever works, right?

More seriously, this will be an issue for them. Parliament rises on Thursday for summer recess but the Conservative Party will not get a break. MPs will pick their top two in the next few days, then the pair will begin touring the country to try and convince party members to vote for them.

It is unlikely to be a friendly affair. Unless something goes drastically wrong, Truss and Sunak will be the last ones left standing at the end of the week. Supporters of the chancellor obviously loathe the foreign secretary, and vice versa. There will be briefing wars, endless blue-on-blue attacks and a constant fear of gaffes, lest the other side get handed a new campaign line on a plate.

In short: the Conservatives will not have a relaxing summer break. The Labour Party, on the other hand, can get the sunglasses and flip-flops out early. They remain ahead in the polls, Keir Starmer no longer has the threat of Durham police fining him hanging above his head and, by left-wing standards, MPs seem to broadly be getting along at the moment.

They can merrily pop down to the beach with a cocktail, let their opponents tear strips off each other, and occasionally put their head around the door to remind the electorate that they exist. After their well-deserved break they can return to Westminster in September and pick up where they left off.

It is a huge advantage to have over the government. The Conservatives have, after all, not had a proper summer recess in at least four years. 2019 had its own leadership contest and the pandemic meant that, for two years, no one could ever be entirely off their guard.

Of course, it would be easy to have little sympathy for those MPs. They are the ones who chose to topple both Theresa May and Boris Johnson, and they are not the only ones whose lives got upended by Covid-19. Still, remaining stuck in the Westminster bubble – be that physically or via endless WhatsApp campaigning and plotting – is not healthy for anyone.

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People in SW1 have different opinions and priorities to the rest of the country; what matters to them often isn’t what matters to voters. Time also flows differently in and around parliament; some stories will feel all-consuming in Westminster yet normal people can blink and miss them.

It has already been an issue in the leadership contest. The various candidates have ceaselessly attacked each other on tax and trans issues but, really, should that be their priorities? There is a chasm between what they want to talk about and what the country needs them to talk about and, without the chance of a break, it will only get wider. They will keep talking to one another and to the Conservative selectorate and keep floating further away from the rest of the country.

It should be a worry to both us and them; no one wins if a governing party gets stuck in a bubble for years on end. Well, not quite no one; if I were a Labour MP, I’d probably go get a round of margaritas in right about now.