Senior Conservatives have privately voiced scepticism about a poll urging party members be given a vote on the removal of Boris Johnson, after the party’s headquarters found fewer than half of a sample of signatories were party members.

The authors of the petition have said addresses and membership numbers provided by the signatories are undergoing strict checks and that Conservative campaign headquarters (CCHQ) has not yet earned the vast majority of the signatories.

The website Conservative Post, which organised the petition, said it was being supervised by a team of experienced professionals.

The petition is being championed by the Tory donor Peter Cruddas and the former MEP David Campbell Bannerman, who said on Tuesday the campaign had nearly 14,000 signatures.

The petition on the Conservative Post website claims it has “racked up more than 10,000 member signatures in just a week” and that signatories are “required to enter proof of membership in order to sign the petition, which is then immediately sent to the Conservative party chairmen Ben Elliot and Rt Hon Andrew Stephenson MP.” That statement is anticipated to be amended and the petition will be forwarded in full at a later stage in the leadership contest.

Campbell-Bannerman said there were more 12,000 people who had filled in forms that would be sent by email to CCHQ. “As with all polls there are some done out of malice or for humour, but that seems a very small proportion,” he said.

Source: The Guardian