The method by which the UK’s next prime minister will be chosen is not unprecedented but it is unusual. In 2019, Boris Johnson was propelled into Downing Street on the votes of 92,153 Tory members. But the result was, by then, a foregone conclusion. Mr Johnson had comfortably won the preceding ballot of Tory MPs and went on to trounce Jeremy Hunt.
The race between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss looks much closer. The winner will not have been the first choice candidate of many of their colleagues. Even a comfortable margin of victory among the membership will amount to the endorsement of about 0.01% of the UK population. This is not just a peculiar way to appoint a leader in a democracy. It is dangerous to give the highest elected office to someone on these terms.
In the summer of 2019, Mr Johnson claimed the result of the Brexit referendum as a personal licence to govern. That was nonsense in constitutional terms, but politically resonant since he had been the figurehead of the leave campaign. He then won a substantial general election victory. That mandate will give constitutional legitimacy to his successor, but not authority. » | Editorial | Thursday, July 21, 2022
