The Tory leadership contest rules are to change in order to whittle down the number of candidates, the party board confirmed this evening. After it became clear that the contest was going to be rather chaotic with more than a dozen candidates, the party agreed to raise the threshold for nominations to make it harder for contenders to get onto the ballot paper.
Each would-be leader must have eight nominations to get onto the ballot, and then win the support of at least 17 MPs in the first round. Then at the second ballot, any candidate receiving 32 votes or fewer will be eliminated, with rounds continuing until only two remain. The first round will take place on 13 June, and further ballots are scheduled for 18 June, 19 June and 20 June. CCHQ will then take over for the membership stage of the contest, with the first membership hustings on 22 June and the contest closing in the week beginning 22 July.
As things stand, this means that five of the contenders – Mark Harper, Esther McVey, Rory Stewart, Andrea Leadsom and Sam Gyimah – don’t qualify, though they have until Monday to get enough nominations to make the ballot paper.
Some of the contenders are in fact ex-contenders. Today James Cleverly and Kit Malthouse announced that their campaigns were ceasing to exist, as they had realised they were not attracting sufficient support to make it to the later stages of the contest. Perhaps they were trying to heed the advice of James Brokenshire, who yesterday urged candidates to drop out and let the party get on with it quickly. Or perhaps they were jumping before being pushed, given today was the last day you could announce you weren’t going to stand after all, rather than having to face the humiliation of failing to get enough friends around you to make it to the first round.
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