Theme: Parties & Elections | Content Type: Journal article

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Choosing the Conservative Leader: a View from History

Vernon Bogdanor

theresa maya on the paper

Thomas Charters

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The history of the choice of Conservative Party leaders shows a progression from choice by an elite via choice by MPs to choice by party members. Even so, the parliamentary party retains, by contrast with the Labour Party, a dominant role in choosing the leader. The criterion of who is best placed to unify the party remains of importance, but is supplemented by two other criteria: who is best placed to win the next general election and who is the more genuinely Conservative of the various candidates. The Liz Truss premiership of 2022, however, the year of three Prime Ministers, seemed to cast doubt on the efficacy of Conservative leadership election rules.

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Volume 95, Issue 3

Latest Journal

Volume 95, Issue 3

This issue features a collection 'Policing the Permacrisis', edited by Ben Bradford, Jon Jackson and Emmeline Taylor, in which academic experts, senior police—both current and former—and commentators offer a diverse set of ideas for changing policing for the better. Other articles include 'Back to the Future? Rishi Sunak's Industrial Strategy' by James Silverwood and Richard Woodward, and 'The Case for a Scottish Clarity Act' by Steph Coulter. There are a host of book reviews, such as a review of 'The Inequality of Wealth' by Liam Byrne, and 'The Eye of the Master: A Social History of Artificial Intelligence' by Matteo Pasquinelli.

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