Senior Tories want to alter leader vote

Senior Tory MPs are planning to strip ordinary members of their right to pick party leaders, it emerged today.

Leaders of the backbench 1922 Committee hope to change the rules after the next election in a move sure to split the party.

Grassroots members were given the final say in leadership elections five years ago under reforms by William Hague. Before that, the leader was picked in a ballot of Tory MPs.

The system came under fire when Iain Duncan Smith won in 2001, even though former chancellor Kenneth Clarke was the choice of MPs.