Is the Tory leadership race going on for too long? Many Conservative MPs think so

There are not many MPs at Westminster in mid-August, but those Conservatives who are here are asking: “Why haven’t we got a new prime minister yet?”

It now seems an age since Boris Johnson stood at the lectern outside No 10 and bemused the nation in the moment of his humiliating downfall by musing that “them’s the breaks”. Yet, six weeks later, there is no replacement for the man apparently on one long jolly around European holiday spots, even as the UK faces its biggest economic crisis in more than a decade.

When the entire country stages a general election, it is possible to determine the next leader in six weeks – but, somehow, it takes the Conservative party two months to carry out the job.

One Tory MP I did bump into is delighted at the delay – because he is backing the struggling Rishi Sunak and hopes something will turn up – but told me it is nevertheless ludicrous.

Another blames Graham Brady, the powerful head of the 1922 Committee which sets the rules. It was widely expected to wind up the contest at the end of this week, but then plumped for early September.

Some Tories speculate that the laidback Brady fancied a long summer holiday himself – while others believe no senior party figure will risk offending its members, who pick the winner.

So, here we are, in the farcical position where MPs managed to make their choice for the next PM in just two weeks, while the grassroots is given a relaxed roadshow of repetitive hustings. This reached its nadir in Northern Ireland on Wednesday, where the Conservatives do not even stand candidates in elections and are thought to have just 600 members.

Before 1998, Tory MPs picked their new leader – as Labour MPs did until 1981 – but both parties, and the Liberal Democrats, want to show their members that it is worth the fee. The depressing damage has been laid bare as Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have fought to outbid each other on tax cuts and being nasty to asylum seekers, to win over a largely old, wealthy, white, southern target audience.

But the more immediate consequence is an extraordinary vacuum where a government should be – as a trembling public contemplates rocketing energy bills and recession – symbolised by the removal van outside No 10.

One obvious solution is for parties to turn to their members in opposition, but for their MPs to pick the new leader when they are also picking the prime minister. However, with no party keen to pick a fight with its dwindling number of members, do not expect that change anytime soon.

Yours,

Rob Merrick

Deputy political editor