Foreign nationals able to vote in Conservative Leadership election.

[DaveB]

So it seems that you don't actually have to be a UK citizen to vote in the Conservative leadership election. Anyone who pays £5 as a "Young Conservative" and signs up with Conservatives Abroad using whatever bogus credentials they can think up becomes a party member and gets to vote with no checks or challenges.

Can't see that being abused in any way...

https://twitter.com/sturdyAlex/statu...36312565661696
https://www.conservativesabroad.org/under-26

[d000hg]

I thought it based on membership 3 months before?

[Paddy]

So it seems that you don't actually have to be a UK citizen to vote in the Conservative leadership election. Anyone who pays £5 as a "Young Conservative" and signs up with Conservatives Abroad using whatever bogus credentials they can think up becomes a party member and gets to vote with no checks or challenges.

Can't see that being abused in any way...

https://twitter.com/sturdyAlex/statu...36312565661696
https://www.conservativesabroad.org/under-26

It's a cheap way for Putin to select the British PM

[jamesbrown]

That isn't going to work (anymore) because the cutoff was three months before the start of the campaign.

[DaveB]

That isn't going to work (anymore) because the cutoff was three months before the start of the campaign.

Not quite:

The Party constitution states that eligibility for Party members to vote in a contested election in stage 2 of leadership elections are those:

...who were members of the Party from the time of the call for nominations by the Chairman of the 1922 Committee for the election of the Leader and have been members for at least three months immediately prior to the close of the ballot for the election of the Leader shall be entitled to vote.2

Any foreign party watching the proceedings and aware of this loophole will have had ample chance to exploit it should they have wanted to.

[jamesbrown]

Not quite:



Any foreign party watching the proceedings and aware of this loophole will have had ample chance to exploit it should they have wanted to.

No, it says exactly what I said. I even qualified it with "anymore". Sure, there was an opportunity more than three months ago, that follows logically, just as Labour members could've joined more than three months ago and probably got away with it.

[DaveB]

No, it says exactly what I said. I even qualified it with "anymore". Sure, there was an opportunity more than three months ago, that follows logically, just as Labour members could've joined more than three months ago and probably got away with it.

No. Nominations were called for on the 12th July. Ballot closes on 2nd September.

Anyone who was a Tory party member on or before the 2nd June gets to vote. Thats less than 8 weeks ago. I doesn't take a genius to see that Johnson was in trouble well before that. Anyone with an interest in a leadership election had plenty of time to get signed up.

[jamesbrown]

No. Nominations were called for on the 12th July. Ballot closes on 2nd September.

Anyone who was a Tory party member on or before the 2nd June gets to vote. Thats less than 8 weeks ago. I doesn't take a genius to see that Johnson was in trouble well before that. Anyone with an interest in a leadership election had plenty of time to get signed up.

Fair enough, I stand corrected, but it's the same basic situation. Anyone who really cared to try and disrupt the election would've joined ages ago and that will be a tiny number of people. All this rule is attempting to do is to avoid a massive campaign to add fake members once the PM has resigned. There's nothing to stop someone becoming a member of a political party at any time, including the Conservative party. If they do so now, they can vote in the next leadership election. There are some other conditions, like not being a member of another party, but they are unlikely to check. It isn't even very expensive.

[NotAllThere]

So... the foreigners will end up electing the worst PM ever or someone who isn't quite as bad as Boris. I think we're fsked either way. Well you are.

[tazdevil]

So... the foreigners will end up electing the worst PM ever or someone who isn't quite as bad as Boris. I think we're fsked either way. Well you are.

Oi I'm not a foreigner and with a membership of ~180K which hasn't changed much recently I doubt there are many foreign fixers involved