Tory members should be stripped of the ability to pick their leader when the party is in power, the chairman of the 1922 Committee has said.
Sir Graham Brady insisted Conservative MPs should decide the successor if a prime minister is ousted.
He said it was “crazy” that MPs can topple a leader by submitting letters of no confidence but the rank and file choose the replacement in a leaked recording.
The chairman of the powerful committee of backbench Conservative MPs made the comments, which were recorded and passed to The Telegraph, as he spoke to students at Durham University last Thursday.
Under the current leadership contest system which was introduced by Lord Hague, MPs whittle candidates down to the final two before a vote of party members on which one should become leader.
Sir Graham said: “But I’m the first chairman of the ‘22 who has had to operate it while we’ve been in government… [inaudible]. And so my view is that that was a mistake to introduce that rule.
“I think it’s fine to have the party members voting on the leader when you’re in opposition.
“But in a parliamentary system where essentially you could only remain prime minister if you enjoyed the confidence of your party in Parliament, it seems to me crazy that we now have different mechanisms in that the parliamentary party.
“The Conservative members of Parliament can get rid of the leader by voting no confidence, but then the leader is supplied by the party members.”
He added: “So I would, from choice … remove that final vote for the members for when the party is in government. But it will never happen, because you will need the party members to vote by a super majority in a constitutional change in order to make that different. And they won’t.”
Sir Graham’s comments will fuel speculation that if Rishi Sunak is toppled after the local elections, Tory members would not have a say in his replacement.
