selecting leaders

Question 1

how do the conservatives choose their party leader?

Answer 1

• between 1965 and 1997 only the MPs were involved in choosing the leader
  -MPs vote on leadership candidates
  -candidates are eliminated in voting rounds until only 2 remain
  -their top two choices are presented to the rest of the party (i.e. members)
  -all party members vote on the remaining two candidates using a one member one vote system

Question 2

how do labour choose their party leader?

Answer 2

-parliamentary labour party makes nominations first: candidates need to be nominated by at least 20% of the PLP to proceed to the next round
-candidates also need support of 5% of local parties or 5% of trade union affiliate members
-all members then vote on candidates, using OMOV and the AV system

Question 3

how do the liberal democrats choose their party leader?

Answer 3

-candidate must be an MP, have the support of at least 10% of lib dem MPs and backing from at least 20 local parties, with support from at least 200 members
-all members vote using OMOV and AV system

Question 4

why was labour’s use of ‘registered supporters’ controversial?

Answer 4

in 2015 supporters paid only £3 to become a member, which allowed over 100,000 people to sign up and 84% supported Jeremy Corbyn, giving him a significant advantage

Question 5

what’s one key difference between how the tories elect their leader and how labour/lib dems do?

Answer 5

the conservatives give more power to MPs, as only the top two candidates progress to the second round, therefore the eventual winner is likely to have the backing of a significant number of MPs