2019 Conservative Party Leadership Election

The 2019 Conservative Party Leadership Election refers to a leadership election for the British Conservative Party which was triggered after incumbent Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Theresa May announced her intention to resign on June 7th, 2019 with the leadership election due to begin on June 10th, 2019.

The election will determine who the next Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom will be. It is considered to be the biggest Conservative Party leadership election in it's history.

On July 23rd, 2019, Boris Johnson was announced as the winner of the election.

Developments

See more: 2019 United Kingdom Political Crisis

Speculation about a leadership election first arose following the party's poor showing at the 2017 snap general election that May had called in hope of increasing her parliamentary majority for Brexit negotiations. However, the Conservatives lost their majority in the House of Commons due to a swing towards the Labour Party. Subsequent speculation has arisen from the difficulties May has had in getting a Brexit deal that is acceptable to the Conservative Party. These escalated in November 2018, with members of the Eurosceptic European Research Group pushing for a vote of no confidence in May that was held in December. May survived this, but delays in Brexit eroded her authority.

Resignation of Theresa May

On May 24th, 2019, Theresa May announced that she would resign as leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister on June 7th, 2019.

Beforehand, on March 27th, 2019, Theresa May had announced her intention to resign as Prime Minister if the withdrawal agreement was passed through by parliament.

She discussed her intention to stand down with members of the Conservative Party's 1922 Committe.

“This has been a testing time for our country and our party. We’re nearly there. We’re almost ready to start a new chapter and build that brighter future. But before we can do that, we have to finish the job in hand.

As I say, I don’t tour the bars and engage in the gossip – but I do make time to speak to colleagues, and I have a great team in the Whips' Office.

I also have two excellent PPSs. And I have heard very clearly the mood of the parliamentary party. I know there is a desire for a new approach – and new leadership – in the second phase of the Brexit negotiations – and I won’t stand in the way of that.

I know some people are worried that if you vote for the Withdrawal Agreement, I will take that as a mandate to rush on into phase two without the debate we need to have.

I won’t – I hear what you are saying. But we need to get the deal through and deliver Brexit.

I am prepared to leave this job earlier than I intended in order to do what is right for our country and our party. I ask everyone in this room to back the deal so we can complete our historic duty – to deliver on the decision of the British people and leave the European Union with a smooth and orderly exit.

Campaign

On June 10th, 2019, nominations closed and the official campaign got underway. Jeremy Hunt, Esther McVey, Michael Gove and Matt Hancock were the first four candidates to launch their campaigns.

On June 11th, 2019, Andrea Leadsom and Mark Harper launched their campaigns.

On June 12th, 2019, Boris Johnson launched his campaign.

Television debates

As part of the leadership election, several broadcasters announced plans for TV debates. BBC, Channel 4 and Sky News organised debates for the candidates.

The Channel 4 debate took place on June 16th, 2019 with all remaining candidates (excluding Boris Johnson, who was invited but declined to appear) invited to debate. The debate was moderated by Krishnan Guru-Murthy.

The first BBC debate was held on June 18th, 2019, moderated by Emily Maitlis. Like the Channel 4 debate, all remaining candidates were invited, with Boris Johnson confirming his appearance at the debate.

Sky News scheduled to broadcast a debate with the final two candidates in the race on June 26th, 2019, however due to Boris Johnson declining his invitation, the debate had to get cancelled. A debate took place on July 1st, 2019 with Jeremy Hunt being the only candidate to participate.

On July 12th, 2019, BBC presenter Andrew Neil conducted interviews with Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt individually. A Question Time special was due to be held where both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt would have questions from an audience of Conservative Party which was to be hosted by Fiona Bruce, however it was later cancelled.

Head to head debates

ITV News held the first head to head debate on July 9th, 2019 where Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt debated as the final two contenders for the leader of the party. Julie Etchingham moderated the debate. A second and final debate was held by the Sun and talkRadio on July 15th, 2019 which was moderated by The Sun political editor Tom Newton Dunn.

Candidates

• Boris Johnson (winner)
• Jeremy Hunt (runner-up)
• Michael Gove (eliminated after fifth ballot)
• Sajid Javid (eliminated after the fourth ballot)
• Rory Stewart (eliminated after third ballot)
• Dominic Raab (eliminated after second ballot)
• Matt Hancock (withdrew before second ballot)
• Mark Harper (eliminated after first ballot)
• Andrea Leadsom (eliminated after first ballot)
• Esther McVey (eliminated after first ballot)
• James Cleverly (withdrew before first ballot)
• Kit Malthouse (withdrew before first ballot)
• Sam Gyimah (withdrew before first ballot)

Results

First ballot

The first ballot took place on June 13th, 2019. Boris Johnson received 114 votes, Jeremy Hunt received 43 votes, Michael Gove received 37 votes, Dominic Raab received 27 votes, Sajid Javid received 23 votes, Matt Hancock received 20 votes and Rory Stewart received 19 votes.

Andrea Leadsom received 11 votes, Mark Harper received 10 votes and Esther McVey received 9 votes. Due to their poor results in the first ballot, the three of them were eliminated.

On June 14th, 2019, Matt Hancock withdrew from the leadership election after coming sixth in the first ballot.

Second ballot

The second ballot took place on June 18th, 2019. Boris Johnson received 126 votes, an increase of 12 MPs supporting him, Jeremy Hunt received 46 votes, Michael Gove received 41 votes, Rory Stewart received 37 votes and Sajid Javid received 33 votes.

Dominic Raab was eliminated after he received only 30 votes, falling short of the 33-vote threshold.

Third ballot

The third ballot took place on June 19th, 2019. Boris Johnson received 143 votes, Jeremy Hunt received 54 votes, Michael Gove received 51 votes and Sajid Javid received 38 votes.

Rory Stewart only received 27 votes and did not get enough votes to get past the 33-vote threshold.

Fourth ballot

The fourth ballot took place on June 20th, 2019. Boris Johnson received 157 votes, Michael Gove received 61 votes and Jeremy Hunt received 59 votes.

Sajid Javid only received 34 votes and did not get enough votes to secure his place in the fifth ballot.

Fifth ballot

The fifth ballot took place on June 20th, 2019. Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt both received the most votes with 160 votes and 77 votes respectively. Michael Gove only received 75 votes, two votes short of Jeremy Hunt.

Result

The final round of voting between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt took place from June 22nd, 2019 until July 23rd, 2019 after the two candidates received the most votes in the fifth and final ballot.

On July 23rd, 2019, Boris Johnson was announced as the new Conservative leader – and in extension – Prime Minister. Boris Johnson won by receiving 92,153 votes, 66% of the vote whilst Jeremy Hunt only received 46,656 votes, 33% of the vote.

Incidents and controversies

Boris Johnson controversies

Throughout the leadership election campaign, frontrunner Boris Johnson has been scrutinised over his campaign, his reactions to incidents during the period and incidents revolving around his personal life.

Boris Johnson's campaign

Candidates have shown to have a negative response to Boris Johnson's leadership campaign due to his past comments which were branded as 'racist' and 'unacceptable'.

It was rumoured that the remaining Conservative leadership candidates would form 'some sort of alliance' to prevent Boris Johnson from becoming leader of the party.

Boris Johnson received a considerable amount of criticism from fellow Conservative candidates and the wider public for declining his appearance at the Channel 4 debate however accepted an invitation to the first BBC debate citing that the Channel 4 format would be a 'blue on blue catastrophe'.

It was reported that Boris Johnson supporters had split their vote between Johnson and Jeremy Hunt in order to prevent Michael Gove from being in the final leadership.

Boris Johnson's House Incident

On June 21st, 2019, police arrived at Boris Johnson's House where it was reported that he was fighting against his girlfriend. This led to many in the public and in the media to scrutinise Johnson.

Kim Darroch Email Leak Controversy

Boris Johnson was criticised for not publicly backing Kim Darroch, British Ambassador to the United States, during an email leak where Darroch branded President of the United States Donald Trump and his administration, "incompetent, ill-skinned and intolerant".

Boris Johnson was acussed of being responsible of Kim Darroch's sacking under orders by Donald Trump.

#ToryDrugOff

During the campaign, Conservative leader candidates such as Michael Gove, Rory Stewart and Andrea Leadsom disclosed using drugs in the past which came subject of media attention which made an impact on the campaign.

From June 7th, 2019, Michael Gove and Boris Johnson admitted to taking cocaine, Andrea Leadsom admitted taking weed back in university, Rory Stewart also admitted taking opium and Jeremy Hunt too admitted taking cannabis.

Reaction

Social media users took to Facebook and Twitter and the term 'ToryDrugOff' started to be used as a search term relating to the controversy and as a hashtag on Twitter.

After the candidates disclosed their drug taking, Dominic Raab, who has previously admitted taking cannabis, responded by saying he "believes in a second chance".

Andrea Leadsom said: Everyone is entitled to a private life before becoming an MP. I smoked weed at university and have never smoked it again since.

Michael Gove stated that he deeply regretted taking cocanie when he was younger.

Esther McVey Campaign Launch Gatecrash

During the launch of her campaign, a protestor gatecrashed Esther McVey's event by taking the microphone and started attacking the audience and McVey (see below).

Related Memes

Permission from Sajid

Permission from Sajid refers to a Twitter hashtag which started trending in response to Conservative Party leader contender Sajid Javid stating that he won't grant permission for a second Scottish independence referendum to be held if he was elected Conservative party leader and Prime Minister.

Scottish Twitter users started mocking Sajid by tweeting #PermissionFromSajid where Scottish Twitter users ask permission from Sajid Javid for when they want to do something casually.

#ASloganForJeremy

On June 22nd, 2019, #ASloganForJeremy trended on Twitter. Twitter users started to create their own humourous slogans for Jeremy Hunt's campaign for Conservative Party leader.

Ruth Davidson's Kiss of Death

Ruth Davidson's Kiss of Death refers to a term that Scottish Twitter users used during the leadership campaign in response to Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson's endorsements for leaders which ultimately led to the elimination of the candidates that she supported.

This began when Ruth backed Sajid Javid for leader but was eliminated, then Michael Gove shortly after who was also eliminated and then endorsed Jeremy Hunt.

Search Interest

External References