London MP Bob Blackman has been elected the powerful chairman of the 1922 Committee of Backbench Tory MPs.
He comfortably won the election which was marred by controversy after some MPs were unable to take part as they arrived too late, after whips had sent out a message with the wrong finishing time.
Harrow East MP Mr Blackman got 61 votes, with his challenger Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, MP for the North Cotswolds, gaining 37 backers.
After the announcement, Mr Blackman stressed that the Tories could now “start to rebuild our parliamentary party” so it is a “fighting force” in a “fighting position” to “deliver” a Conservative government at the next election.
Mr Blackman will now play a key role in deciding the timetable to elect a new Tory leader to succeed Rishi Sunak.
However, the vote for 1922 committee chairman was controversial given the confusion over when voting ended.
An email sent to MPs made it clear it would finish at 5.30pm with the result announced at 6pm.
But a message from the whips suggested that voting would go on until 6pm.
This left some senior Tories, including ex-Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who won in Godalming and Ash, Father of the House Sir Edward Leigh, and former Chief Whip Julian Smith unable to take part in the election.
Former armed forces minister Mark Francois was furious at the way the election had been handled.
He stormed: “The 1922 committee competency levels have reached a new low. That is saying something.
“This was bent.”
Mr Blackman, who has the safest Conservative seat in the country after the July 4 election, succeeds Sir Graham Brady as chairman.
Labour poured activists into his Harrow East seat to seize it.
But Mr Blackman won comfortably, with 25,466 votes, or 53.3 per cent, compared to his Labour challenger Primesh Patel, on 13,786 votes, or 28.9 per cent.
Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman appeared to have damaged her chances of becoming Tory leader with withering criticism of Mr Sunak’s election campaign and calls for the party to shift to the Right.
Ex-Home Secretary Priti Patel, ex-Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch, ex-Security Minister Tom Tugendhat, ex-Health Secretary Victoria Atkins and ex-Home Office minister Robert Jenrick are believed to be Tory leadership contenders.
Some MPs are understood to want former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who held onto his seat in Chingford and Woodford Green, installed at the helm of the party as a "caretaker" leader.
