Party members want Mr Johnson’s name to be added to the ballot when 160,000 members vote for a new leader next month. The members – all of whom must give their membership number when they sign up – are backing a petition organized by Lord Crundash of Shoreditch, the Tory donor, and David Campbell Bannerman, a former Tory MEP. The petition is the first stage of a campaign by members to reinstate Mr Johnson, with further plans to pressure union presidents to take action to remove him from the leadership. The petition, published on the Conservative Post website and written as a letter to Andrew Stevenson, the Tory leader, said: “In 2019, Boris Johnson was elected by members as our new leader. “Now that choice has been changed without reference to the people who elected him, the loyal and hard-working member of the Conservative Party. “I accept that there are rules in place that we will have a choice between the two finalists, but that is not the point because our first choice was removed without our involvement. “You cannot take away the right of members from the whole process at the outset as that is open to abuse by the parliamentary party who may have vested vested interests and grievances to settle our leader which is what has happened with the current process .” He concluded: “Let me tell you that morale among members is low and there is anger towards the parliamentary party. “I demand that Boris Johnson be added to the ballot as an option for members to vote for in the upcoming election.”
