Choosing The Tory Leader

The means by which the Conservative Party have determined their party leadership has produced some of the most dramatic political theatre of the last four decades. The disputed succession to Harold Macmillan and the discrediting of the magic circle, the procedural changes designed to evict Edward Heath, the brutal political assassination of Margaret Thatcher, the bizarre resignation and immediate re-election of John Major, the putsch against lain Duncan-Smith and the ritual acclamation of Michael Howard, only to have him replaced by the unexpected election of David Cameron have demonstrated the capacity of the Conservatives for political intrigue.In this new evaluation Timothy Heppell assesses the way in which the Conservative Party have determined their leadership since the 1960s. By considering the events that led to each leadership election, the candidates standing and their campaigning strategies, he explains how and why respective victors were elected. He argues the Conservatives have been maladroit when constructing their electoral procedures, they have returned unexpected party leaders, many of whom were to suffer from crises of legitimacy and accusations that they were default leaders. He observes how the dominance of ideology, as a destabilising influence on incumbents and a voting determinant in leadership elections, has been immensely disadvantageous to post-Thatcherite Conservatism.Rather than empowering incumbents to project their leadership credentials outwards to the electorate and against their Labour counterpart, successive post-Thatcherite Conservative party leaders have been forced to look inwards, devoting crucial time to the complexities of intra-party management and the threats against them from rivals from within the parliamentary party. Heppell concludes by asking whether the undisputed mandate and ideological pragmatism of David Cameron indicates that the Conservatives are learning from these mistakes in their own recent past.

How political parties choose their leaders, and why they choose the leaders they do, are questions of fundamental importance in contemporary parliamentary democracies. This book examines political leadership selection in the two dominant parties in recent British political history, exploring the criteria and skills needed by political leaders to be chosen by their parties. While the Conservative Party’s strong record in office owes much to ability to project an image of leadership competence and governing credibility, the Labour Party has struggled with issues of economic management, leadership ability, and ideological splits between various interpretations of socialism. The authors argue that the Conservatives tend towards a unifying figure who can lead the Party to victory, whereas the Labour Party typically choose a leader to unite the party behind ideological renewal. Exploring the contemporary political choices of leaders like Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn, this book offers a timely insight into the leadership processes of Britain’s major political players.

The change in the method of selecting the Labour Party leader, from an elite parliamentary ballot to a mass participatory Electoral College, which occurred in 1981 was ideologically motivated. However, the strategy of the Left to enhance the accountability of the incumbent party leader to the wider Labour movement, and the Left's chances of securing an ideological succession in the party leadership failed. Drawing together debates on the method of party leadership selection and the ideological positioning of leadership candidates, this book examines each leadership election since 1963 as a means of charting the decline of the left within the Labour Party. Given the bypassing of the Electoral College to appoint Gordon Brown in 2007, and the debates surrounding his authority and legitimacy as Labour Party leader thereafter, this book offers a comprehensive and timely examination of Labour Party leadership elections from Wilson to Brown which will be invaluable for scholars of British Politics and the history of the Labour Party.

This book looks at how the election of Conservative Party leaders has become more democratic over the last fifty years and how that has affected the Party and the nature of its leadership.

Over the last three decades British political parties have radically, and repeatedly, changed the ways in which they choose their leaders. This book describes, in far greater detail than has appeared before, the frequently bitter debates over leadership selection in the Conservative, Labour, Liberal, Social Democratic and Liberal Democrat parties. Given the extensive efforts parties have devoted to refining their selection rules, it is surprising to find that the new rules have had few identifiable consequences. Only rarely have the rules affected who runs for party leadership, how they campaign, or who wins the contest. Careful analysis reveals that, contrary to conventional belief, leadership contests are far more likely to be beneficial than harmful for a party - as was again demonstrated by John Major's 1995 re-election as Conservative Party leader. Based on extensive interviewing with former party leaders and other politicians, this book is a fascinating study of an important yet poorly understood phenomenon: party leadership contests.

The Conservatives are back - but what took them so long? Why did the world's most successful political party dump Margaret Thatcher only to commit electoral suicide under John Major? Just as importantly, what stopped the Tories getting their act together until David Cameron came along? The answers are as intriguing as the questions.

This book provides a cross-country study of the consequences of the expansion of intra-party democracy, the trend towards more inclusive methods of selection for party candidates and leaders, and the impact of these on political elites in terms of sociopolitical profile and patterns of careers. It explores the link between political organizations and political elites, by studying the role of parties in parliamentary and political selection and its impact on the political leadership appointed. Putting an emphasis on primary elections, it analyses the party elites that emerge from those selection processes and those democratized organizational settings. It focuses not only on the analysis of the processes through which party elites are selected and the consequences at the level of the party but also at the level of party elites themselves, i.e. what impact party primaries have on the characteristics parties’ candidates and leaders. The book offers a theoretical, comparative, and empirical account of the internal electoral processes of parties and their impact on political recruitment. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of political elites, political parties and party systems, electoral politics, democracy, populism, and leadership, and more broadly to comparative politics.

Search for Boris Johnson in this eye-boggling illustrated adventure! Greetings citizens! Can you spot Boris? In an array of crowded scenes, from zip wires and bikes to Beijing and the Bullingdon Club, search for Boris amongst the masses. Anyone for wiff-waff? With oodles of in-jokes and bonus material to find, plus cameo appearances from some old chums, this book provides hours of fun for both the lovers and loathers of the blonde-mop-topped phenomenon that is... BoJo. A classic and fun gift book, tracking Boris down around the world will be endless amusement for all the family.