The Tory leadership race shows why so many feel ‘politically homeless’

Is it fair for the Conservative Party membership to decide who the next prime minister is?

Whoever comes out on top in the race to succeed Theresa May will have a place in the history books as the first prime minister directly elected by the members of their party.

The last two PMs to take over outside a general election – Ms May herself and Gordon Brown – were effectively chosen by acclamation, as no rivals made it on to the ballot paper.

In earlier days, Tory leaders were selected by the party’s MPs (Margaret Thatcher, John Major) or – in the distant past – by a wholly undemocratic process of anointment by unidentified grandees. Labour picked leaders like Tony Blair or Neil Kinnock by a complex system of “electoral colleges” carefully balancing the interests of members, unions and MPs.

So the selection of Ms May’s replacement by a postal vote of Tory members has to be a step forward for democracy, then?

Well, not everybody thinks so.

The one-member-one-vote system introduced by William Hague certainly includes more people in the process than the MPs’ ballot that preceded it.

But it places the choice of PM in the hands of around 125,000 Tory members who – whatever their individual merits – are highly unrepresentative not only of the country itself, but of Conservative voters in general and even of their own parliamentary party.

Not only are they significantly older and wealthier than the average Briton, they are also likely to be well to the right of the typical Tory voter on issues like tax, law and order, immigration and – crucially this time round – Europe.

When a few hundred MPs chose the leader, the process may have been less inclusive, but at least they could be relied upon to keep a shrewd eye on which candidate was most likely to help them save their seats by appealing to a broad range of voters.

Lord Heseltine has already warned that the current contest is in danger of becoming a beauty parade for the contender who can seem most like Nigel Farage, whose Brexit Party attracted the votes of a fair proportion of Conservative members last week.

The same process can be seen in the Labour membership’s choice of Jeremy Corbyn, who would once have been viewed as far too left wing for the leader’s job.

So, an advance in democracy or a handover of the choice of Britain’s leaders to a small clique pushing their parties to the extremes?

It’s a difficult judgement to make, but it is also difficult to deny that the democratisation of party structures has coincided with the growth in numbers of voters who say they feel politically “homeless”.

Yours,

Andrew Woodcock

Political editor