Conservative MPs – rather then party members – could choose the next prime minister, after the extraordinary resignation of Liz Truss after just 45 days in office.
The outgoing leader announced that the task of choosing her replacement will be “completed within the next week”, making it very difficult to stage a repeat of the grassroots ballot that put Ms Truss in No 10.
Graham Brady, the chair of the backbench 1922 Committee, said he expected Tory members to be “consulted”, but admitted the body had yet to decide how that could happen in one week.
The hope will be that the shattered Conservative MPs can quickly unite around a successor – despite their failure to do so since Ms Truss’s leadership was engulfed by crisis – making the process a rubberstamp.
An online ballot of members is possible, but will be very challenging to carry out in just a few days before the new prime minister is installed on Friday next week.
Sir Graham hinted at there being a coronation of a single candidate, chosen by MPs, saying: “The party rules say there will be two candidates –unless there is only one candidate.”
Party rules could be changed quickly to lift the threshold for entering any ballot of MPs dramatically, perhaps to the support of 100 MPs or even more.
Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor, might command enough support, but the current holder of the post, Jeremy Hunt – the government’s effective leader since last Friday – is believed to have ruled himself out.
But the tactic risks a possible legal challenge if Tory members insist the party’s rules must give them the final say in any contest.
It could also be delayed if a right-wing candidate – the sacked former home secretary Suella Braverman, or Kemi Badenoch – decides to fight the party’s drift back towards the centre.
The Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt is another likely candidate, after finishing third in the vote of MPs that followed Boris Johnson’s departure.
Within minutes of the announcement, her supporters tweeted under the banner ‘Penny Mordant for PM’, posting: “This is make or break time. We need to get our act together, deliver for the country and win the next General Election.“
Sir Graham added: “I’ve spoken to the party chairman and discussed the parameters of a process to look at how we can make the whole thing happen, including the party being consulted, by Friday next week.
“I think we’re deeply conscious of the imperative in the national interest of resolving this clearly and quickly.”
Speaking at a lectern outside No 10, Ms Truss said: “This morning I met the chairman of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady.
“We’ve agreed that there will be a leadership election to be completed within the next week.
“This will ensure that we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plan and maintain our country’s economic stability and national security.
“I will remain as prime minister until a successor has been chosen.”
