TORY grandees have revealed they are imposing heavy security precautions during MPs’ votes for a new Tory leader in a bid to stop ballot box stuffing.
Conservative MPs begin voting on Thursday next week to thin down an array of 11 candidates to just two.
There will be as many as five different rounds of ballots, with a deadline of June 20 imposed for the final selection.
The heavy security measures being taken by the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers supervising the vote of all 313 MPs include:
- All ballot papers will be specially stamped by the committee’s officers
- Their colour will only be decided the night before
- MPs will be ordered to surrender their phones before they vote in a Commons committee room, so they can’t take photos of the papers
- All MPs must show their Palace of Westminster passes to receive a ballot paper, no matter how well known they are, including PM Theresa May
The extraordinary measures to stop fraud are crucial to give the public confidence in the process to pick a new Prime Minister, the grandees have insisted.
They were unveiled today by the acting chairmen of the 1922 Committee, senior MPs Dame Cheryl Gillan and Charles Walker.
Quizzed on whether the pair are expected attempt to rig the contest, Dame Cheryl said: “We do trust our colleagues. But we must also have a process in which everybody in the party has confidence.
Mr Walker added: “You would expect the highest standards for us, and that is absolutely right.”
Dame Cheryl also revealed she has used her experience as an international scrutineer of elections abroad in troubled states such as Bosnia to devise the rules.
One the final two candidates have been selected, they will be sent out to the party’s 160,000 members to then vote on, after four weeks of exhaustive hustings in front of them around the country.
The winner then be announced in the week beginning July 22.
Dame Cheryl added: “I monitor international elections, I did Turkey, I lead the team in Bosnia-Herzegovina".
Senior Tories have received stinging criticism for holding MPs’ hustings with the wannabe PMs behind closed doors, with all media requests to come in turned down.
The 1922 Committee bosses also refused to publish the full rules of the contest, or even reveal how they had come up with them.
Timetable of Tory leadership election which will pick new PM
June 7: Theresa May
stands down as party leader but will continue as PM until her successor is elected
June 10: Nominations for the leadership open 10am-5pm; candidates must have the support of eight MPs
June 13: First ballot of MPs, open 10am-12pm; any candidate with fewer than 13 votes eliminated
June 18: Second ballot (if needed), open 3pm-5pm; any candidate with fewer than 33 votes eliminated
June 19: Third ballot (if needed), open 3pm-5pm; candidate with fewest votes eliminated
June 20: Fourth ballot (if needed), open 10am-12pm; candidate with fewest votes eliminated – any further ballots needed will also take place on this day
June 22: Second stage begins where votes shift from MPs to party activists who will choose between final two candidates
July 22: Result announced this week, in time for Commons recess to begin
Mr Walker revealed the media ban had been imposed because journalists make Tory MPs feel uncomfortable.
He said: “You do cramp colleagues’ style. You can be quite an intimidating presence.
“We want colleagues to feel free to ask anything they want, and not feel intimidated by your presence in the room.”
Insisting their new rules had imposed order on a contest that had become chaotic, Mr Walker added: “The feedback I’ve had from constituents is, thank God the 1922 has got a grip of this”.
The leadership contest will be formally triggered tomorrow (FRI), when Mrs May steps down as party leader, and becomes acting party leader.
The 11 candidates have until 5pm on Monday to prove they have at least eight supporters to qualify for the race, or they will be immediately knocked out.
After the first vote, held between 10am-12pm on June 13, any candidate with less than 17 votes – 5% of Tory MPs – will be disqualified,
The second ballot will be on June 18, after which any candidate without the support of 33 MPs – 10%- will be knocked out.
More ballots are scheduled for June 19 and 20, with the candidate with the lowest votes knocked out after each, until there are only two left.
Teeing up the possibility of repeated rounds of voting late into the night on the final day, Mr Walker added: “We will have two candidates to present to the party membership by the end of Thursday 20th June.
“We have provision to have as many ballots as we need to get there by close of play on Thursday.”
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