In the first important development for the Tory parliamentary party since the election, yesterday evening saw the election of the 1922 Committee chairman. That descended into bedlam too…
Senior Tories including Mark Francois, Edward Leigh, and Julian Smith found themselves blocked from voting as they were apparently too late at 5:45 p.m. The whips were blamed first for the communication discrepancy, until Tories pulled out an email from committee member Bob Blackman himself specifying that voting would continue until 6 p.m. An email Francois was seen waving angrily at Blackman’s face in Strangers bar…
Francois was raging all of last evening. He said “a lot of Tory MPS were uncomfortable that it was being done in such a mad rush” after getting pummeled at the election and attacked the botched process:
“It’s a really serious matter but you’ve got a bunch (23) of senior Tory MPs who can’t run an election well. We cannot have the man that presides over the rules for electing a new Tory leader elected in a in an election which had a major irregularity.”
Bob Blackman beat the other surviving committee member Geoffrey Clifton-Brown 61 votes to 37. Start as you mean to go on…
UPDATE: Guido hears the Tory WhatsApp groups are popping off over the drama. Simon Hoare, Danny Kruger and Wendy Morton are some of the MPs furious over the mad rush, backing Francois’ points. They’re not happy…
Red Wall Labour backbencher Jonathan Brash told GB News that Starmer should resign:
“I’m completely fed up about it, and I think it’s got to the point now where I genuinely think that, as far as the Prime Minister is concerned, it’s not a case of if, it’s when.”