Bow Group calls for full membership primary in the Conservative Party

“We know from the long Brexit process how out of touch Parliament often is, and how much they need to listen to the public and face their scrutiny.”

Cartoon by Crid.

The Bow Group, Britain and the world’s oldest conservative think tank, has called for a full membership primary in the Conservative party leadership contest.

Research Fellow Benjamin Loughnane argued “it must not be left up to a small group of MPs out of touch with the country to decide the next prime minister”.

Chairman Ben Harris-Quinney added:

"As a modern democracy of 65 million people, it’s simply not tenable to have a PM chosen by a few hundred people in a closed room, or a fait-a-complis of only two very similar candidates being offered.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. The current system clearly isn't working for the country or the Conservative Party, who have had three successive leaders fail in a short time for the same reason – they didn't stick to a clear agreed agenda and lost their base support.

We need ample time for the membership of the Conservative Party, and more importantly the public, to scrutinise and learn about the candidates and their detailed policy vision for our nation.

We also need a full primary before the membership of the Conservative Party, so that a genuine mandate and base can be taken forward into government.

Unfortunately, once again a short election is being lined up, with the public and members deprived of almost all of the candidate choice by a handful of MPs and officials behind closed doors. The result will be another Westminster-approved candidate that will fail to establish a base among the public, Conservatives will slump back into hung parliament territory at the next election, and we will have the same collapse and psychodrama again in two years.

There has been much talk of the need for stability, but stability of government over the long term will come from a free and fair debate resulting in a strong democratic mandate. Not rushing the process, leaving necessary debates unaired, and skipping that clear mandate.

If we do have another swift stitch up, it's quite likely the next Conservative leader's tenure will carry the stench of illigitimacy and be even shorter than May or Johnson's. The nation will continue to be helpless witnesses to the groundhog day of another inadequately scrutinised Conservative leader failing and their government collapsing.

We know from the long Brexit process how out of touch Parliament often is, and how much they need to listen to the public and face their scrutiny.

We encourage all candidates running for the leadership of the Conservative Party, and the leadership of our nation, to embrace democracy and start listening to the people who put them in power."