Bob Blackman Elected 1922 Committee Chair Amid Chaotic Scenes

Bob Blackman has been elected as the chair of the Conservative Party's influential 1922 committee.

The backbench committee of MPs voted to elect Blackman - the MP for Harrow East - with 61 votes, while the other candidate Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown received 37 votes. 

There was some confusion around the voting timings, with a number of Conservative MPs understood to have missed the vote. One MP - Mark Francois, was overheard declaring the election was "bent" after storming out of the committee room.

The committee will play a key role in organising the process for the party to select its next leader, and the chair of the committee is also the person responsible for collecting any letters of no confidence Tory MPs may wish to submit. 

Among Blackman’s first jobs will be working alongside the party board to determine how Rishi Sunak’s successor as party leader will be decided. 

As things stand, if 15 per cent of Tory MPs submit a letter then there can be a confidence vote.

Given there are currently 121 MPs, this would mean 18 letters are needed to trigger a vote. 

The committee’s previous chair Sir Graham Brady, stood down at this election and was nominated to the House of Lords by Sunak.

The committee usually meets weekly when the Commons is sitting, and is very influential within the Conservative Party ranks. 

Both Blackman and Clifton-Brown made their pitches to colleagues in a hustings earlier this afternoon. 

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