Tory leadership hopefuls may need the support of 20 Tory MPs to make it onto the official ballot paper, according to a member of the 1922 Committee Executive.
Bob Blackman, joint-executive secretary of the 1922 Committee, said the exact criteria to get onto the ballot paper is still to be confirmed but he said the proposed way forward would see MPs needing the support of 20 of their parliamentary colleagues to make it to the first round, up from eight previously.
He told Sky News: “We are considering what the threshold should be for someone to get on the ballot paper.
“Last time MPs only had to get eight members of Parliament to support them to get on the ballot paper.
“That meant that we had got a pretty wide field even though we had fewer MPs.
“Now we have got many more MPs, the view is that candidates to get on the ballot paper should demonstrate a broad swathe of support amongst Conservative MPs so we are looking at a proposer, seconder and either 18 supporters or possibly more supporters in order to reduce that list, to demonstrate the candidate justifies being on the ballot.”
Mr Blackman said ballots are likely to take place on Wednesday and Thursday this week and then Tuesday and Wednesday next week until there is a final two.
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