Tories must win back Reform UK voters, says Suella Braverman

The argument over the future direction has also been reflected in a procedural debate over how the leader should be chosen.

Re-elected Tory MP and former minister George Freeman has argued that the party’s leadership rules, introduced in 1998, should be changed to strip party members of the final vote on the winner.

He has suggested activists should whittle the longlist down to “three or four” candidates, with the party’s MPs then picking the winner.

But figures on the right of the party, including Mrs Braverman and Mr Rees-Mogg, have railed against the idea of taking the decision away from Tory members.

There is also an argument under way over when the contest should take place.

Increasingly, Conservatives have argued in favour of a longer contest, rather than rushing to choose a new leader over the summer.

Sir Graham Brady, outgoing boss of the 1922 committee that sets leadership rules, has said the need for a debate over the future leader needs to be balanced against the need to provide “effective opposition quite quickly”.

Sir Graham, who did not stand for election again, said he didn’t see “any need” for the rules to be changed to change the current voting process, under which MPs choose two final candidates that go to a members’ vote.

He added that this would require changing the party’s constitution, and there was “unlikely to be majority” for this.