Poll finds New European readers back proposals to give Commons last say over who becomes PM

A whopping 77% said they agreed with proposals put forward by opposition MPs that would make the appointment of any future prime minister subject to a Commons vote, where a majority would be needed.

Only 23% disagreed with the survey that was launched on Wednesday.

The poll comes after Tory MPs voted down a bill at would have prevented a prime minister being nominated without the consent of parliament.

Pete Wishart, an SNP MP, introduced the legislation which he said would bring Britain ‘into the 21st century’.

‘What my bill in effect seeks to do is bring the House into the 21st century and replicate the conditions we find in most other properly functioning representative democracies… and even [in those] we find in other representative democracies around the United Kingdom,’ he told parliament.

The bill ends the practice of a candidate being appointed by a small minority in the Commons, or without a General Election being held.

‘What it would do is end the current situation where a prime minister of this country can be decided by a few thousand members of the Conservative Party,’ he added.

Tory MPs, however, were concerned it would give the Speaker of the House unprecedented power to decide the country’s leader.

Conservative MP Peter Bone said: ‘What would have happened when (Theresa May) resigned if that proposition was in place and we had Speaker (John) Bercow in the chair?

‘And it would not have been impossible to see the situation where the opposition combined to vote for (Jeremy Corbyn) and maybe one or two disenchanted Conservatives joined that vote.

‘And then would be proposing to the Queen that (Corbyn) was prime minister of a Conservative government which nobody on these benches would support and everyone on those benches.

‘It’s a nice try but honestly, that doesn’t work.’

The bill was eventually voted down 115 to 55.