Simon Jenkins (He’s beaten and humiliated, but Rishi Sunak has one final job to do – for party and country, 5 July) highlighted the importance of the coming Conservative leadership election. One thing is for sure: the system needs to be changed.
I spoke at a Young Conservative conference in 1975, during the Ted Heath/Margaret Thatcher contest. I proposed then that we should have a two-stage process, but, crucially, the other way round to the system we have now. At the moment, the parliamentary party produces a shortlist of two, and the membership, who have no idea how the contenders perform in the House of Commons, impose the leader on the MPs. Inevitably, the members choose on policy or populism, when the leader should be chosen on capability, work ethic and teamworking.
The solution is simple. After the MPs decide whom to nominate, let party members produce the shortlist and then the parliamentary party elects the new leader from it. That way, the members have a say and can offer guidance, but the final decision is made by those who have to live and work with the victor.
Stephen Reid
Basingstoke, Hampshire
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