A group of almost 2,000 Conservative members have written to party chairman to demand they are given the option of voting for Boris Johnson in the leadership ballot.
The first stage of the Tory leadership contest is nearing its conclusion, with Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt vying to become the final two candidates making their case to members, who will elect the next PM.
However, more than 1,800 members loyal to the outgoing PM are said to have added their signature to a petition asking party officials to add Mr Johnson’s names as a “third option”.
The petition, first reported by The Telegraph, was organised by Tory donor Lord Cruddas and former Tory MEP David Campbell-Bannerman.
The signatories all signed up to the statement: “I demand Boris Johnson is added to the ballot as an option for the members to vote upon in the forthcoming election.”
Lord Cruddas told the newspaper that a significant part of the membership still wants the option of voting for the leader who triumphed at the 2019 general election.
“We think it is only fair because Boris was the members choice back in 2019 and he has been constructively removed by the Parliamentary Party without referral to the membership,” he said.
The senior Tory donor added: “By adding Boris to the final ballot to make it a three-horse race means that the winner will have the backing of the membership.
“There will be no ambiguity around the result and the final choice of leader will have integrity,” he said.
Surveys suggest Mr Johnson – who has made clear he will stand down as PM when a new leader is elected in early September – saw his popularity among members plummet during 2022.
The PM has remained at the bottom of ConservativeHome’s cabinet league table, an online survey of the Tory grassroots, for several months.
Votes are currently being counted to decide the next Tory leadership candidate to be eliminated from the race, which has become a three-way battle to face Mr Sunak in the run-off.
With the former chancellor comfortably ahead among MPs, Ms Mordaunt, Ms Truss and Kemi Badenoch remain in the hunt for the second place on the ballot.
But Ms Badenoch would appear to be the most vulnerable candidate after finishing fourth in the previous round of voting.
Tom Tugendhat, eliminated at the last round, turned up to vote along with a group of his allies, but refused to say which who he was backing.
But a Mordaunt campaign insider said: “Don’t forget that lots of Tom’s backers are good friends of Penny and her One Nation endorsers.”
I’m getting really big Corbyn fan vibes from this.
Lol — we’re officially at DEFCON Trump.
Trump V2.0
The Tories can’t even run secret parties, let alone this country.
Tory parliamentary party being forced to be lead by someone they have no confidence in… interesting.
Did anyone ever really doubt this was going to happen? He has no intention of going anywhere, just needed time to concoct a method of staying that they think could pass legitimacy tests. Which it doesn’t of course. But he’s never really been that bothered about laws and standards has he?
I predict a riot
If everyome in this sub joined the tory party it sounds like that would be more succesful than actually voting against them
This is satire right…right?
And this is the exact reason why he never said the word “resign” and didn’t appoint a caretaker PM.
Not surprised one bit.
It says a lot about the new candidates if they want that turd to return.
This was always going to happen, Johnson never resigned, but what a crock of shameless shithouses that lot are.
“They’re telling us the wrong lies! Can’t we have the old liar back?”
2000 out of 200,000 – They can’t listen to the 1%…..
Oh wait
I hope they win!
What voting system are they suggesting to use when the membership have to choose between three candidates rathet than two? They’d have to use an Alternative Vote system or it wouldn’t be fair…
The worst possible thing that could happen to Tory party is for Johnson to stay on as PM, they would be completely and utterly decimated and the rest (read: sane bits) of the party know that.
If by some crook he managed to stay on I would expect another VONC at the earliest opportunity and I would not be at all surprised if they lost it.
Why can’t the voters demand a general election?
I hope they succeed – I can think of no finer way to rip the Tory party apart.
There are over 100,000 members of the Tory party
2000 of them signing something stupid isn’t really important or newsworthy.
They’ve realised how poor the alternatives are.
They apparently like Truss but must know shevis an election loser.
Rishi Sunak has a better chance of winning an election but says things tory members don’t want to hear such as some taxes may have to be raised.
22 comments
A group of almost 2,000 Conservative members have written to party chairman to demand they are given the option of voting for Boris Johnson in the leadership ballot.
The first stage of the Tory leadership contest is nearing its conclusion, with Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt vying to become the final two candidates making their case to members, who will elect the next PM.
However, more than 1,800 members loyal to the outgoing PM are said to have added their signature to a petition asking party officials to add Mr Johnson’s names as a “third option”.
The petition, first reported by The Telegraph, was organised by Tory donor Lord Cruddas and former Tory MEP David Campbell-Bannerman.
The signatories all signed up to the statement: “I demand Boris Johnson is added to the ballot as an option for the members to vote upon in the forthcoming election.”
Lord Cruddas told the newspaper that a significant part of the membership still wants the option of voting for the leader who triumphed at the 2019 general election.
“We think it is only fair because Boris was the members choice back in 2019 and he has been constructively removed by the Parliamentary Party without referral to the membership,” he said.
The senior Tory donor added: “By adding Boris to the final ballot to make it a three-horse race means that the winner will have the backing of the membership.
“There will be no ambiguity around the result and the final choice of leader will have integrity,” he said.
Surveys suggest Mr Johnson – who has made clear he will stand down as PM when a new leader is elected in early September – saw his popularity among members plummet during 2022.
The PM has remained at the bottom of ConservativeHome’s cabinet league table, an online survey of the Tory grassroots, for several months.
Votes are currently being counted to decide the next Tory leadership candidate to be eliminated from the race, which has become a three-way battle to face Mr Sunak in the run-off.
With the former chancellor comfortably ahead among MPs, Ms Mordaunt, Ms Truss and Kemi Badenoch remain in the hunt for the second place on the ballot.
But Ms Badenoch would appear to be the most vulnerable candidate after finishing fourth in the previous round of voting.
Tom Tugendhat, eliminated at the last round, turned up to vote along with a group of his allies, but refused to say which who he was backing.
But a Mordaunt campaign insider said: “Don’t forget that lots of Tom’s backers are good friends of Penny and her One Nation endorsers.”
I’m getting really big Corbyn fan vibes from this.
Lol — we’re officially at DEFCON Trump.
Trump V2.0
The Tories can’t even run secret parties, let alone this country.
Tory parliamentary party being forced to be lead by someone they have no confidence in… interesting.
Did anyone ever really doubt this was going to happen? He has no intention of going anywhere, just needed time to concoct a method of staying that they think could pass legitimacy tests. Which it doesn’t of course. But he’s never really been that bothered about laws and standards has he?
I predict a riot
If everyome in this sub joined the tory party it sounds like that would be more succesful than actually voting against them
This is satire right…right?
And this is the exact reason why he never said the word “resign” and didn’t appoint a caretaker PM.
Not surprised one bit.
It says a lot about the new candidates if they want that turd to return.
This was always going to happen, Johnson never resigned, but what a crock of shameless shithouses that lot are.
“They’re telling us the wrong lies! Can’t we have the old liar back?”
2000 out of 200,000 – They can’t listen to the 1%…..
Oh wait
I hope they win!
What voting system are they suggesting to use when the membership have to choose between three candidates rathet than two? They’d have to use an Alternative Vote system or it wouldn’t be fair…
The worst possible thing that could happen to Tory party is for Johnson to stay on as PM, they would be completely and utterly decimated and the rest (read: sane bits) of the party know that.
If by some crook he managed to stay on I would expect another VONC at the earliest opportunity and I would not be at all surprised if they lost it.
Why can’t the voters demand a general election?
I hope they succeed – I can think of no finer way to rip the Tory party apart.
There are over 100,000 members of the Tory party
2000 of them signing something stupid isn’t really important or newsworthy.
They’ve realised how poor the alternatives are.
They apparently like Truss but must know shevis an election loser.
Rishi Sunak has a better chance of winning an election but says things tory members don’t want to hear such as some taxes may have to be raised.