1922 Committee
| Founded | 1923 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Palace of Westminster, London, United Kingdom |
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Key people
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Graham Brady, Chairman Cheryl Gillan, Charles Walker, Vice-Chairs Bob Blackman, Nigel Evans, Secretaries Stewart Jackson, Treasurer |
| Website | conservatives.com |
The Conservative Private Members' Committee (known informally as the 1922 Committee) is the parliamentary group for the Conservative Party in the UK House of Commons. The committee, consisting of all Conservative backbencher MPs meets weekly while the parliament is in session, and provides a way for backbenchers to coordinate and discuss their views based on their constituents' and personal views, independently of frontbenchers. Its executive membership and officers are by consensus limited to backbench MP's only, although since 2010 frontbench Conservative MPs have an open invitation to attend meetings. The committee can also have an important role in choosing the party leader (and thus Prime Minister when the Conservatives are in government). The group was formed in 1923, but first became important after 1940. It is generally closely related to the leadership, and under the control of party whips.
The 1922 Committee has an 18-member executive committee, the chairman of which must oversee any election of a new party leader, or any Conservative party-led vote of confidence in respect of the current one; such a vote can be triggered by 15 percent of Conservative MPs writing a letter to the chairman asking for such a vote. This process was invoked most recently on 28 October 2003, when 25 MPs requested a vote of confidence in Iain Duncan Smith by writing to the chairman, then Michael Spicer. Duncan Smith lost the vote the next day.
The committee was formed in 1923 but takes its name from the 1922 general election. The name does not stem from a famous 19 October 1922 meeting at the Carlton Club in which Conservative MPs successfully demanded that the party withdraw from the coalition government of David Lloyd George. The resolution passed at that meeting triggered the general election which the Conservative Party won — the many new Conservative MPs elected for the first time formed the Conservative Private Members' Committee to discuss and influence political events.
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