What Is The 1922 Committee?

If you’ve seen the news this week or been on Twitter, you may have heard of something called the 1922 Committee.

While this may sound like a group set up to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the BBC, it is in fact a rather powerful group of Conservative Party MPs who could decide the future of Boris Johnson.

The committee itself is responsible for the running of Tory leadership elections and no-confidence motions. A vote of no confidence can be triggered by 15% of Tory MPs, currently 54, writing a letter to the chairman, currently asking for such a vote. The current chairman is Sir Graham Brady MP.  

The committee does also serve as a sounding board for backbench issues within the party and gives them a chance to debate policy without frontbench interference, although since 2010, ministers have been allowed to attend meetings. 

If the letters threshold is reached, then it becomes a straight referendum, which Boris famously likes, and if the sitting leader doesn’t get 50% of the vote amongst MPs then they are out. 

While this may seem slightly bizarre, the party has several confirmed political kills to its name. Most famously, it was the 1922 Committee members, the so-called ‘men in grey suits’, who told Margaret Thatcher she had to go. Most recently the committee organised the no confidence vote against Theresa May, which she actually did win, but she of course left shortly after. The last time it was successful in removing a Tory leader was Ian Duncan Smith back in 2003.