The Conservative party’s electoral system won an unlikely compliment this afternoon from Labour MP Ian Austin, who declared that it showed how a ‘serious party’ operated. It might look serious compared with the fiasco of Labour’s leadership crisis, but does the election of a new Prime Minister really have to be dragged out over two months, and at a time when the country is crying out for someone to take leadership over Brexit?
It is bizarre that 100,000 Conservative party members are deemed to require twice as long to make up their minds as 46 million UK voters have to decide in a general election campaign. Until 2001 the Conservative party leadership was decided on fairly quickly via a ballot exclusively of MPs. For that year’s election the franchise was extended to all Conservative party members. There is something to be said for that – even if it installed Iain Duncan Smith as leader.
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