Let Tory members choose next chairman, say Boris Johnson allies
Allies of Boris Johnson have joined calls for “disenfranchised” Tory members to be empowered to pick the party’s next chairman.
Several Conservative MPs suggested that Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, should be stripped of the power to appoint Nadhim Zahawi’s replacement, with the choice devolved to the party membership.
But one former Tory chairman backing the idea warned that it would not happen, because Mr Sunak would not want to risk a victor emerging with “a bigger mandate than he has”.
Priti Patel, a former home secretary, is also understood to back the move, while another ex-Cabinet minister loyal to Mr Johnson told The Telegraph: “I think the members need to be more empowered. The party is nothing without its membership, so I totally support the ideas of members being involved.”
Greg Smith, a backbencher, agreed that electing the chairman would be a “good idea”, arguing that it would help to repair relations with members denied the chance to vote in October’s party leadership contest.
“A neat way of locking in that level of democracy, to ensure that the party genuinely belongs to its members and not just its leadership, would be to elect the chairman,” said Mr Smith.
But he added that there may need to be a “mechanism” in place to separate the role from the Government.
As things stand, the Tory chairman tends to be appointed as a minister without portfolio who attends Cabinet. Mr Smith said: “You probably couldn’t have the party membership electing a member of the Cabinet.
“We have to exist in opposition as much as we do when we’re in power. So the party chairman could be a significant, separate role elected by the membership.”
Michael Fabricant, a Johnson loyalist, said the Tory chairman was the “interface with the volunteer party” and so “they ought to have some sort of say”, but warned Number 10 of the potential risks of another “long election process” to select the next chairman.
Tim Loughton, a fellow backbencher, said: “I think it’s an interesting idea. I wouldn’t be against exploring that, and that might help members feel more engaged with what’s going on, particularly given they didn’t have the vote on the last leadership.”
Parliamentary party ‘has too much power’
However, the proposal was shot down by some senior Tory backbenchers, with David Davis, a former Brexit secretary, saying: “I think it’s a bad idea. At the moment we need a chairman who can help to take us forward to win the next election, and the best judge of that is probably the Prime Minister.”
Lord Cruddas of Shoreditch, whose grassroots Conservative Democratic Organisation has launched a petition to elect the next chairman, told The Telegraph that the parliamentary party has “too much power” over how things are run.
“We want to have our own elected chairman, we want to have a say over candidates, and we want to change the constitution,” he said. “This is an opportunity for the Prime Minister to really show that he is on the side of the members.
“I know it’s quite a big step, a radical change in the constitution of the Conservative Party, but after all we have got a Prime Minister that was not elected by the members of his party.
“Surely this is an opportunity for him to say: ‘I hear what you’re saying, let’s try and repair or build some bridges.’ Because the membership is livid that they’ve been disenfranchised from this whole process. The mess we’re in today has been caused by the parliamentary party.”
