Tory leader hustings to follow members’ vote

Liz Truss could benefit as she is expected to perform worse under membership scrutiny than Rishi Sunak

RISHI SUNAK’S campaign to be the new Tory leader has suffered a blow after it emerged that the majority of his head-to-head hustings with Liz Truss will take place after members are likely to have voted.

The Conservative Party will hold 12 in-person hustings throughout he UK to allow the 200,000 members to grill the candidates for themselves. The party last night published details of the gatherings as far afield as Exeter in the south, Norwich in the east, Perth in Scotland and an as yet undisclosed location in Northern Ireland, starting in Leeds next week.

However, more than three quarters of the hustings – 10 – will be held after the ballots are sent out on August 1.

Strategists expect many members to fill in their forms straight away and return them, which could give an advantage to Ms Truss as Mr Sunak is expected to perform better when debating with his rival.

Last night, Mr Sunak’s campaign played down any concerns that the timing of the hustings benefited Ms Truss.

One source said: “We’ve got the right message, a strong campaign and all the

‘We’ve got the right message, a strong campaign and evidence that Rishi is the only one who can beat Labour at the next election’

‘Members are emailing in their thousands demanding a Boris ballot. It cannot be in the party’s best interests to ignore them’

evidence shows that Rishi is the only candidate who can beat Labour at the next election.”

The party also confirmed that members will be able to change their votes online up until 5pm on Friday September 2, when voting formally closes. Although MPS privately suspect that changes are unlikely to happen.

The timing of the ballots being sent out will give greater importance to the first broadcast hustings, hosted by the BBC on Monday.

More than 4,000 party members in just three days have now backed a petition organised by Tory donor Lord Cruddas and David Campbell-bannerman, a former Conservative MEP, demanding that members are given their own confirmatory vote on Boris Johnson’s future. In a letter to Andrew Stephenson and party director Darren Mott, Lord Cruddas and Mr Campbell-bannerman urged members loyal to Mr Johnson to write to Peter Booth as the National Convention’s chairman to request an emergency meeting over Mr Johnson’s future.

The convention – the most senior body of the Conservative Party’s voluntary wing – would then debate a motion that it should “reject the resignation of Boris Johnson as Party Leader” and amend the party’s constitution to allow “a sitting Party Leader to be placed on the final ballot of members in any leadership contest”.

The emergency meeting would also debate whether to give members a vote on if Mr Johnson should be forced from office. Mr Campbell-bannerman forecast that tens of thousands of members might quit if they are given a say over Mr Johnson’s future.

He told The Daily Telegraph: “The voters elected Boris in and they should have the power to unelect him if they wish... It is definitely in the best interests of the party not to lose tens of thousands of members and put Sir Keir Starmer in power.” In today’s Telegraph, Lord Cruddas said: “Members are sending emails in their thousands demanding a Boris ballot. It cannot be in the party’s best interests to ignore them.”

♦ Tobias Ellwood, the Tory MP who lost the party whip, said it had been temporarily restored to allow him to vote in yesterday’s final MPS’ leadership ballot.