Candidates to replace Liz Truss as Tory leader will need at least 100 MP nominations
Candidates to replace Liz Truss as Tory leader will need at least 100 nominations from Conservative MPs, 1922 Committee chair Sir Graham Brady has said.
This will rule out a number of candidates from running, and means the maximum number of people able to stand is three.
During the last leadership election, Rishi Sunak won 137 nominations, Ms Truss 113 and Penny Mordaunt 105.
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“We fixed a high threshold but a threshold that should be achievable by any serious candidate who has a prospect of going through,” Sir Graham said.
Nominations are open from now and will close at 2pm on Monday – with a new leader to be chosen by the end of the week.
The final two candidates will take part in a hustings event organised with news broadcasters, before an online vote for members to choose who they want to lead the party.
However, Sky’s political correspondent Ali Fortescue said “it could end up being that it doesn’t go to the membership”.
She points out that some MPs don’t want the vote to go to the party membership, given that Ms Truss was their last pick.
“They know this is a last chance – they won’t be able to go through another prime minister as quickly as this,” she said.
One potential option is that MPs coalesce around one candidate, meaning the contest will be over on Monday if only one person is able to receive enough nominations.
How the Tory Party changes its leader
Sir Graham has already said that the new prime minister will be chosen by Friday 28 October, with Ms Truss to stay on as PM until then.
The last leadership election – triggered by the resignation of Boris Johnson in July – lasted six weeks and involved several rounds of MPs voting and hustings.
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Ms Truss officially took over from her predecessor on 6 September, with members favouring her tax-slashing plan for growth over rival Rishi Sunak’s more conservative fiscal policies.
But in an extraordinary turn of events, her short-lived premiership lasted just six weeks.
Ms Truss announced her resignation earlier on Thursday after she met Sir Graham and agreed for a leadership election “to be completed within the next week”.
It means her replacement will be in place before the crucial fiscal statement on 31 October.
After 44 days in the top job, Ms Truss will be the shortest-serving prime minister in modern British political history.
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Liz Truss’s rise and fall
Her downfall was set in motion by her disastrous mini-budget, which sparked turmoil in the financial markets and forced her to U-turn on the tax-slashing agenda that brought her into office.
In her resignation statement outside Downing Street, Ms Truss said she recognised she could not “deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party”.
MPs call to ‘bring back Boris’
Speculation is mounting about who could replace Ms Truss, with many Conservative MPs calling for Boris Johnson to return.
But any comeback from the ex-PM is likely to be divisive, with other Tories describing such a move as a “fantasy” and “too soon”.
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Mr Johnson resigned following a number of scandals culminating in the Chris Pincher affair – which led to the collapse of support in his cabinet.
Having been found guilty of breaking his own lockdown laws, he is still the subject of an ongoing inquiry into whether he lied to the Commons over partygate.
Other MPs have thrown their weight behind Mr Sunak, the former chancellor and runner-up in the last leadership race.
Commons leader Ms Mordaunt, who came third, could also be set to throw her hat into the ring.
Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby says Ms Mordaunt is “taking soundings” on the matter.
‘Britain is not their personal fiefdom’
Opposition parties have said that, whoever wins the leadership race, a general election must be called immediately.
Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said the Conservative Party has “shown it no longer has a mandate to govern”, adding that British people “deserve so much better than this revolving door of chaos”.
“Britain is not their personal fiefdom to run how they wish,” he said.
Comedy writer Bill Dare, – who worked on shows including Spitting Image and Dead Ringers – has died after an accident overseas, his agent said.
Described as a “super producer” by his peers, Dare, 64, worked on eight series of hugely popular satire puppet show Spitting Image.
Airing on ITV during the 1980s and 1990s, the show delighted in lampooning public figures including politicians, celebrities and royalty, winning BAFTAs and Emmys. It was rebooted in 2020.
Dare also created Dead Ringers, a comedy impressions show broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
He also produced The Now Show, a satirical take on the news which ran on Radio 4 from 1998 to 2024.
Dare worked on a wide range of comedy shows during his career, including the radio production of The Mary Whitehouse Experience in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He had also written several novels.
In a statement released on Monday, his agent JFL Agency confirmed he died at the weekend.
A spokesperson said: “We are shocked and greatly saddened to have to announce the death of our brilliant client Bill Dare, who died at the weekend following an accident overseas.
“Our thoughts are with his wife Lucy, daughter Rebecca, and with all of Bill’s family and friends who will be devastated by his loss.
“Bill was a truly legendary producer and writer, and his comedy instincts were second to none.”
Oasis depicted on Spitting Image in 1996. Pic: ITV/Shutterstock
Colleagues were quick to pay tribute and reflect on his talent.
Impressionist Jon Culshaw wrote on X: “It’s impossible to express the unreal sense of loss at the passing of the incredible Bill Dare. The wisest comedy alchemist and the dearest, dearest friend. Much love to Lucy and all Bill’s family and friends. We shall all miss him more than we can say.”
David Baddiel posted on the social media platform: “Just heard that the original producer of The Mary Whitehouse Experience on radio, Bill Dare, has died. Bill was an amazing creative force. I owe him much. RIP.”
Former EastEnders actress Tracy-Ann Oberman said she was “devastated” and that her “entire comedy career was down to Bill”.
She wrote: “When I was on the BBC Radio 4 rep company early on in career – I ran into Bill in the corridors – He asked if I was good at accents. I said yes.
“He cast me in a sketch show. I had to do about 15 different accents. We recorded in front of a live audience at Broadcasting House – afterwards Bill said ‘Why have I never met you – you’re going to have a big career’.
“He was incredibly loyal and supportive and really opened a path for me into the R4 comedy world and then TV having come out of the RSC and theatre it was all new. I will always be grateful. Fly high Bill.”
Comedian and writer Mark Steel wrote: “This is so grim. Bill was a compassionate hearty soul with the ability to be beautifully grumpy, a marvellously thoughtful comic mind.
“He’d argue but always listen and you’d always laugh, he made a million shows and wanted them all to matter and would have made a million more.”
Have I Got News for You writer Pete Sinclair said: “I am utterly devastated by Bill’s death. I still can’t believe it. He was a comedy genius. A hugely talented writer as well as a brilliant producer. A close friend and co-writer. I cannot begin to say how much I’ll miss him.”
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Julia McKenzie, comedy commissioner for Radio 4, said: “I am so terribly sorry to hear this tragic news and my thoughts are with Bill’s wife, family and friends.
“Bill has been a huge part of Radio 4 comedy for decades, as a writer and producer, and listeners will have heard his legendary name at the end of many of their favourite shows.
“Bill was a comedy obsessive, and very instinctive about making the funniest choices when it came to writing, directing and editing.
“He cared so much about his work that in the production booth during Dead Ringers you’d see him crouched over the script, utterly focused on the show.
“He was funny and very dry in person, amusingly cynical when he needed to be and always pushed to keep the comedy he made, and particularly satire, spiky.
“I’ve known and worked with him for 18 years and like many I can’t believe he has gone, he will leave a big hole in the comedy world and in our hearts.”
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