‘Dirty tricks and vote fixing’: Behind the scenes within the Tory management contest | EUROtoday

The query “do Tory MPs fix leadership votes with dirty tricks?” is often on a par with “is the Pope a Catholic?” or “do bears s*** in the woods?”. It is apparent and it occurs each time even when it takes place in secret.

So it’s of no shock to anyone that allegations are already being expressed that vote fixing happened within the first spherical of the present Tory management competitors.

The suspicions encompass former work and pensions secretary Mel Stride who, whereas seen as a good chap, isn’t seen as a severe candidate to interchange Rishi Sunak.

Somehow, he managed to get sufficient Tory MPs to place him on the unique poll after which he bought 16 votes, another than Priti Patel within the first spherical – that means the previous dwelling secretary was the one who was eradicated.

This was achieved though Mr Stride has not even had an official management marketing campaign launch but.

Mr Stride now has one of many different early favourites in his sights, former safety minister Tom Tugendhat, who solely managed to get another vote, with 17 within the first spherical.

Essentially, Tory management vote fixing is the observe by one of many frontrunners of lending votes to a a lot much less in style candidate who can then be moved as much as take out a extra severe rival.

This can occur as a result of the Tory MPs get to determine who the ultimate two are earlier than members vote in an open contest.

There have been sturdy allegations of this occurring earlier than. Infamously, MPs supporting Boris Johnson supposedly switched to Jeremy Hunt to make sure he stored Michael Gove out of the ultimate two in 2019. Mr Gove was seen as the larger menace to Mr Johnson.

Mr Gove was additionally rumoured to have misplaced out in 2016 when votes have been allegedly switched to Andrea Leadsom by the Theresa May camp. Ms Leadsom was such a weak candidate that she pulled out of the race altogether earlier than members even bought an opportunity to select from the ultimate two.

Back within the distant previous, supporters of Iain Duncan Smith voted to get Ken Clarke into the ultimate two to knock out the overwhelming favorite, Michael Portillo.

Sometimes it might probably backfire. Rishi Sunak’s group allegedly lent votes to Liz Truss to cease Penny Mordaunt in July 2022 however misplaced anyway.

What is elevating suspicion now could be the ever-presence of two former chief whips – Gavin Williamson and Julian Smith – across the Commons. They have beforehand been accused of tactical voting ploys. In equity, Mr Williamson has insisted to The Independent that he’s staying out of this management contest.

But the allegation is that Robert Jenrick’s camp has lent votes to Mr Stride to first eradicate his fundamental rival on the suitable, Dame Priti Patel, and can do it once more to take out Mr Tugendhat.

While Dame Priti took her defeat with unbelievable good grace, a few of her supporters have angrily been making allegations.

There was a declare that three votes have been switched from Mr Jenrick to Mr Stride, whom each camp had calculated had 13 supporters, slightly than 16.

Team Badenoch now appears to be making an identical declare in opposition to the Jenrick camp, presumably in an try and soiled his identify after he shocked everybody by beating Kemi Badenoch by six votes 28 to 22. There is a transparent fear that Ms Badenoch, the long-time bookies’ favorite to interchange Mr Sunak and who tops polls of members, may undergo the identical destiny as Mr Portillo in 2001 earlier than members get an opportunity to vote for her.

The irony of that’s that for months now former tradition secretary Nadine Dorries has been claiming that there’s “a plot” to put in Ms Badenoch as the following Tory chief involving Mr Gove and backroom operator Dougie Smith. That plot doesn’t appear to be working in the meanwhile – if it was ever true.

But figures in Team Jenrick are staggered by the claims and have advised The Independent that they’re “utter b*****ks”.

There might be one thing to this. After the primary spherical votes have been counted, and Mr Jenrick got here out because the clear winner, his response was delayed as a result of, as his spokesperson confided, “we need to take his jaw off the ground first”, such was his obvious shock.

The group had calculated he would get 24 votes and was making an attempt to work out the place the additional 4 had come from after they have been being accused of giving three away to Mr Stride.

And whereas soiled methods have featured in earlier contests there’s a severe query mark over whether or not it may feasibly occur this time, with the Tories diminished to a mere 121 MPs.

As one Team Jenrick insider stated: “There are far too few MPs to play games with anymore. Literally, a swing of one or two could be the difference between staying in or not. It’s utter b*****ks to suggest we lent votes because we simply did not.

“We had expected to come second to Kemi [Badenoch] and were planning our messaging around having picked up momentum to win. We needed as many MPs as we could get so there was no interest in lending votes.”

Others have steered that it was actually Team Badenoch who lent the votes. But if that have been true they’ve performed her marketing campaign immense hurt by touchdown her in a distant second place, particularly as Patel votes are anticipated to separate principally between Mr Jenrick and James Cleverly.

Going into the ultimate 4, Ms Badenoch may now discover herself struggling in third place.

So whereas Tory management elections are virtually at all times characterised by intrigue, possibly this explicit management election is that the majority uncommon of issues – a comparatively clear contest.