The chair of the London Assembly, Andrew Boff, resigned this week from the Conservative party after 53 years of membership. He quit after being blocked from entering the race to be Tory candidate for London mayor because he supports the European convention on human rights (ECHR), putting him at odds with Kemi Badenoch’s hardline position.

Messages of support for one of the capital’s longest-serving Conservative politicians quickly poured in from fellow Tories. Gavin Barwell, Theresa May’s Downing Street chief of staff, has backed Boff, warning Badenoch that others would follow him over the ECHR edict. But the rest sent messages privately, not daring to reveal themselves under a leadership that doesn’t tolerate dissent. In an interview last year, Badenoch decreed that rebels “should not and cannot stand as a Conservative candidate” if they do not agree with leaving the ECHR. She also bars anyone supporting net zero.

When Boff applied, for the seventh time, to be considered as Conservative candidate for London mayor, he didn’t really expect to be selected – but nor did he expect to be summoned to be told he was barred from entering the race. In a statement he pointed to the fact that Winston Churchill helped found the ECHR after the second world war, arguing “it was never a leftwing project” but a “safeguard against arbitrary government”. What’s more, he points out to me, the “convention doesn’t even mention asylum seekers”, Badenoch’s main justification for leaving the treaty.

The time may come, he warned, when extremists win an election on an even smaller vote........

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