Back in 1997, the former minister and famous political diarist Alan Clark identified a potentially fatal flaw in the Conservative party’s leadership system. No, not the controversial membership vote – William Hague did not introduce that until 1998. For Clark, eloquent reactionary that he was, the problem was giving MPs the vote and formal mechanisms to challenge the leader when the old “magic circle” was abolished in the 1960s.
The problem, as Clark saw it, was that it would turn the question of the leadership into a pageant without end. The press would always be able to speculate about a contest, and MPs looking to puff themselves up would have an easy way to do so. Over time, the party’s old norms of internal discipline would, said Clark, be worn away.
