Sir Graham Brady gave a candid talk at Durham University, which was swiftly leaked and filled several column inches in the Sunday papers. He expressed his view that he did not believe that wider party membership should have a role in the choice of party leader. As chairman of the Conservative 1922 Committee – the principal ‘man in a grey suit’ , his voice carries weight.
I agree with him. I was opposed to the reform from the moment when William Hague introduced it.
Inevitably MPs will be familiar with the candidates in a way that ordinary party members cannot possibly match. MPs will have seen them perform and they will know their strengths and weaknesses.
A parliamentary ballot can be organised in hours, but involving the party membership adds weeks. Hustings and debates have to be organised in addition to the logistics of the postal ballot itself. This delay may paralyse effective government at a time when events demand swift and focussed leadership, which is exactly what happened in England in the Summer of 2022, and is now likely to follow in Scotland.
Political parties in Parliament need to have confidence in their leadership if they are to function effectively in either government or opposition. The final choice of leader by a wider party membership however, raises the possibility of a leadership choice that a parliamentary party decidedly didn’t want.
This is precisely what befell the Parliamentary Labour Party after Ed Miliband’s resignation in 2015.
Labour MPs voted very decisively against Jeremy Corbyn but their wider party membership chose him anyway, with all the unhappy consequences for them that followed.
And for the Tories, Rishi led in every round of voting and ended with 137 votes in the fifth and final ballot, beating Liz Truss with 113 votes. The membership overturned that result, and the rest is history
Sir Desmond Swayne TD
