Grassroots want election rules changed as they suspect a Boris ‘stitch-up’
GRASSROOTS Tories have demanded changes to the Conservative Party’s leadership election rules to ensure Boris Johnson is on the final ballot paper.
He is the runaway favourite among party members to replace Theresa May, but they fear a “stitch-up” by rivals who want to keep him out of No10.
Under the current rules, MPS whittle down the candidates in a series of ballots until only two are left, who then go head to head in a membership vote.
But after the “disastrous” leadership election in 2016, when Theresa May was crowned winner before members had any say, activists want the rules changed so that their preferred candidate must be taken into account.
Mr Johnson announced his intention to stand on Thursday – the day Mrs May agreed to quit within weeks – and had already been quietly building up support from MPS through dozens of one-to-one meetings in his parliamentary office. His message to them is that he is the only prospective candidate who can deliver Brexit and beat both Nigel Farage and Jeremy Corbyn in a general election.
He is also highlighting his successes as mayor of London and as foreign sec- retary to remind MPS that he is a man who gets things done.
His supporters believe other candidates will do anything to prevent him getting to the final two, as polls have shown that he would beat every other candidate in a head-to-head vote.
There is talk in Westminster of candidates “lending” each other supporters to block out Mr Johnson, who has the support of 39 per cent of Conservative members – three times as many as any other candidate.
John Strafford, chairman of the Conservative Campaign for Democracy, has written to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench MPS, and Andrew Sharpe, chairman of the National Conservative Convention of grassroots Tories, demanding that “at least four MPS should be put before members”.
He said: “Were Boris to be excluded, it would be an absolute disgrace – members would just leave the party.”
Only the 21-member Conservative Party Board, which includes the Prime Minister, Sir Graham and representatives of the grassroots, can change the rules, but Mr Strafford said that if the 1922 Committee and the convention voted for a rule change it would be impossible for the board to say no. Dinah Glover, the chairman of the London East Area Conservatives, said the matter could be discussed at an extraordinary general meeting of the National Convention on June 15, called to hold a confidence vote in Mrs May.
Wayne Fitzgerald, the chairman of the Peterborough Conservatives, said that “to do anything else would be seen as being a stitch-up”, while Roger Patterson, the president of Gainsborough Conservatives, said the current system was “like a dictatorship”.