Pressure for leadership vote change that could put Boris on ballot
CONSERVATIVE grassroots activists are planning to pressure the party’s ruling board to change the leadership election rules to make it easier for a popular candidate like Boris Johnson to succeed Theresa May.
John Strafford, a campaigner for greater democracy in the Tory Party, is writing to the party’s board urging it to change the rules so that any MP with the support of 20 Parliamentary colleagues can go forward to the final ballot among the party’s members. The current rules allow MPs on the party’s backbench 1922 Committee to nominate just two candidates to go forward to selection, which has prompted concerns that an MP popular with the grassroots – like Mr Johnson – will not go forward to the final run-off.
The plans would boost Mr Johnson, who is said by friends to be mulling over when to launch his leadership bid.
He is also said to be planning a speech in the days before the party conference, overshadowing Theresa May’s attempts to rally support.
Two sources have told The Sunday Telegraph that Tory donors are standing ready with hundreds of thousands of pounds in donations to support Mr Johnson if he runs for the leadership.
One MP who backs Mr Johnson said a bid could come “in the pivotal months” ahead of the UK’s exit from the EU in March if Mrs May cannot get her Brexit deal through Parliament.
Mr Strafford challenged Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory MPs last month over the matter and now will write to the party’s board and pressure the party’s chairman Brandon Lewis. One board mem- ber welcomed the idea of giving a greater say to the grassroots, saying: “The current leadership is particularly resistant to member engagement because the grassroots won’t necessarily pick the candidate they want.”
The party is expected to announce that it now has 200,000 members.
Mr Strafford told The Sunday Telegraph: “I am not in favour of Boris as leader but it would be catastrophic if MPs tried to stop him from standing and he wanted to.”
Setting out his plans online, Mr Strafford attacked the current rules, which did not give members a vote in two of the past four leadership elections, when Mrs May won in 2016 and Michael Howard triumphed in 2003.
He said that in those circumstances the MPs “arranged that only one candi- date was left to fight the election”. He added: “This is not acceptable.”
He went on to warn: “If the MPs tried to stitch up the next leadership election it would be the nail in the coffin for the Conservative Party.
“When David Cameron resigned, the party got 10,000 new members in two weeks. In Beaconsfield we got 300 extra members.
“They did not get a vote and one year later only seven out of 300 renewed their subscriptions.”
The Conservative Party was approached for comment.