New billboard campaign highlights the worrying truth about this Tory leadership contest

99.7% of us will have no say in who the next Prime Minister is, Led By Donkeys point out.

A new billboard campaign has set out to remind voters that 99.7% of us have no say in who our next leader will be.

As Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt battle it out for the Tory leadership, posters from the grassroots group show that only 0.3% of the country get to weigh in on who will be the next prime minister.

These new billboards are going up around the UK as a stark reminder of the political climate in which we are operating.

Led By Donkeys are putting the posters up around the country on Tuesday, 25 June.

The posters ask: “Who Gets to Choose The Next Prime Minister?” It continues: “99.7% of us don’t. 0.3% of us do. That’s not democracy.”

The billboard shown in the video was displayed in Christchurch, Dorset, but they will be popping up around the country.

In the tweet, Led By Donkeys said: “The Conservative Party is about to foist a charlatan on our country and 99.7% of us are being given no say whatsoever.”

Apart from the clear dismissal of democracy, which the posters point out, this is worrying when you take a look at the pool of people voting for our next leader.

A new poll carried out for Hope Not Hate and YouGov has revealed the people choosing our prime minister have shown worrying levels of Islamophobia.

Tory party members were asked in a recent poll: ‘Would you be proud to elect a Muslim as prime minister?’

Only 8% of respondents said they would be proud.

New polling carried out exclusively for Hope Not Hate shows that Conservative members have a ‘worrying’ belief in Islamophobic myths.

Professor Tom Bale has also analysed the Tory membership for the BBC and discovered a severe lack of diversity as well as some other concerning results.

Of the Conservative membership, 70% are male, 97% are white, and 86% of higher social classes. The average age of members is 57 and a high proportion are no longer working. Six out of ten say they want the death penalty back.

As we move closer to a new Conservative leader being chosen, it’s time to panic.

Lucy Skoulding is a freelance reporter at Left Foot Forward. Follow her on Twitter.

3 Responses to “New billboard campaign highlights the worrying truth about this Tory leadership contest”

  1. Macroni

    I wonder if the posters will appear in Scotland ?

  2. Dave Roberts

    When Labour Prime Ministers resigned nobody got to vote for their successor either. The writer of this article obviously doesn’t understand the system. I recommend some reading of Dicey and Ferdinand Mount.

  3. Patrick Newman

    Johnson will be in an unusual possibly unique position. When Mrs May was selected as Tory Leader she could go to the Palace with the confidence of a workable majority in the House of Commons. When Boris is chosen as a leader what will he say to the Queen if he has not had to face and succeeded in a vote of confidence? Surely the Queen has a constitutional duty to challenge Johnson to prove he has the confidence of the House and can form a stable working government?

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