Conservatives to vote on leadership rules
The Conservatives’ 1922 committee today ballots its MPs on how best to elect a future leader of the party.
Leader Michael Howard is proposing that candidates win the backing of five per cent of Tory MPs before being allowed to stand. Candidates’ names would then go to grassroots members for consultation before returning to MPs.
Critics of Mr Howard’s plans, which would give MPs the final say on who became the party leader, say the proposals would erode “democratic involvement”.
In a letter in the Daily Telegraph, Conservative trade and industry spokesman David Willetts, defence spokesman Michael Ancram, health spokesman Andrew Lansley and family and culture spokeswoman Theresa May unite to oppose the plans.
The letter is also penned by former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, and Ed Vaizey and Michael Gove, supporters of leadership contender David Cameron.
“It is not too late for the parliamentary party to find a way of involving grassroots members in the Conservative party’s most important decisions. Any proposals that do not facilitate democratic involvement deserve to be defeated,” the MPs write.
David Davis is leading the pack to replace Michael Howard as Tory leader. But Cameron, education spokesman, and Dr Liam Fox, foreign affairs spokesman, have both put their names forward.
Former foreign secretary and recent returnee to the Commons, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, and former chancellor Kenneth Clarke, have yet to formerly pull out of the race.
The number of prospective candidates was whittled down further yesterday after moderniser Alan Duncan, Tory transport spokesman, withdrew his candidature.
Mr Duncan yesterday attacked the “Tory Taliban” for their apparent social conservatism, in particular questioning the party’s “censorious” stance on divergent lifestyles.
The MP said the party would lose votes if it failed to modernise.
Voting begins at noon and ends at 14:00 BST tomorrow, with the result expected soon after.
