Give MPs final choice of next leader, say senior Tories

Tory members must be stripped of the right to choose their next leader if the party is to recover from its election beating, senior figures have said.

Former ministers warned that a “serious discussion about regrouping” could only happen if the power to choose the leader of the party were restored to MPs.

Under Rishi Sunak, on Thursday the Conservatives suffered their worst ever election result, securing just 121 seats as Labour won a landslide.

Many senior Tories have pinpointed Liz Truss’s disastrous six-week tenure as prime minister as the point at which the party passed the point of no return.

Labour relentlessly targeted Ms Truss’s record, claiming she had “crashed the economy” and sent mortgages soaring with her mini-Budget.

Tobias Ellwood, a former defence minister who lost his seat, said the election result showed why the power to appoint the leader must be restored to MPs.

“It’s increasingly the proposal that dare not mention its name but everyone knows that this is the source of so much,” he told The Telegraph.

“It’s why Liz Truss was able to make promises when she became leader that would never survive contact with reality.

“It’s turned Remainers into Brexiteers, pragmatists into populists, One-Nationers into Right-wingers, all because they want to appeal to our base.”

Mr Ellwood said that Mr Sunak should stay on as caretaker leader so the party could undergo “a sensible process of reflection and consideration”.

He added: “The first aspect is allowing MPs to have the final say as to who the leader is. The second aspect is what is the form of Conservatism that we can all rally around?

“That’s something we’ve lost sight of. You don’t look like you want to stay in No 10 when you’re arguing with each other – you’re just going to fail.”

Potential backlash

Any move to completely cut the members out of choosing the next leader could spark a grassroots backlash and further defections to Reform, however.

Under the current system, MPs pick a shortlist of candidates for the leadership which they then whittle down to a final two with a series of votes.

The last pair are then put to the party faithful, with a series of debates being held before members vote on which one to crown.

Ms Truss won the leadership in 2022 after being backed by the membership, even though the parliamentary party strongly supported Mr Sunak.

Members to shortlist?

Sir Robert Buckland, a former justice secretary, said the system should be reformed so that members submit a shortlist of candidates to MPs for a decision.

He said: “We’re in a totally different world now – the old argument about whether it should be for the parliamentary party only really applies in government.

“In opposition you’ve got to make it about the members. So instead of the MPs whittling it down to the members, the members provide a shortlist.

“That way you solve the problem of the MPs ending up with somebody they didn’t want and the members ending up with a choice imposed on them by the MPs.”

Sir Robert said that any decision should wait until the Tory conference this autumn where there could be a proper debate about any potential change.

He added that grassroots activists should be given a “confirmatory vote” to approve the final leadership candidate selected by MPs.

Weeks to replace Sunak

Mr Sunak has said he will stay on as Tory leader until the arrangements to choose his successor have been put in place.

That could take several weeks because the executive of the 1922 committee, which organises leadership contests, needs to be reconstituted.

Only five of the 17-strong the executive remain MPs following the party’s wipeout, meaning internal elections will have to be held to appoint 12 new members.

All the remaining Tory MPs except Mr Sunak will get to vote in the contest, which will include electing a new 1922 chairman to replace Sir Graham Brady.