Rishi Sunak remains leader of the Conservatives for now but the party’s most important figure is arguably a veteran backbencher with little national profile and zero ministerial experience. Bob Blackman, the MP for Harrow East, has taken on a pivotal role in shaping his party’s forthcoming leadership contest after being elected as chair of the 1922 Committee of backbench MPs. His election has already caused the first ripples of what could be a new Tory civil war when some MPs turned up to be told that voting had finished earlier than they had expected, but those tensions are only a foretaste of the kinds of issues that could come across the desk of the 68-year-old in coming weeks.
An avid reader of crime and mystery novels, Blackman has kept his cards scrupulously close to his chest about his views on who he believes is best placed to succeed Sunak, although his hard-right credentials are well known. As for how the leadership contest could unfold and whether there might be a change of the rules, Blackman told TalkTV on Tuesday: “That is up for complete discussion.” But he was clear that he believed the party shouldn’t rush its decision, and the scale of the defeat that had just been inflicted on his party had given Labour a majority that meant “they can almost do what they want to do”. One of the few Tories to have increased their majorities last week, Blackman was first elected to parliament in 2010, having previously been a member of the London Assembly and deputy leader of Brent council. Before politics, he worked for British Telecom in sales and management positions before becoming a sales tutor at the BT Training College. Fourteen years in parliament have passed by without Blackman having any experience in government, but controversies have not evaded him entirely. In 2015 he was ordered by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority to repay more than £1,000 in expenses after submitting more than 700 “inaccurate” travel claims. Three years earlier, Blackman was one of the most vocal opponents of David Cameron’s move to allow same-sex couples to get married, voting against it and telling the BBC that the principle of same-sex marriage was “wrong in the first place”. Blackman doubled down, claiming that Cameron should instead have been bringing back the vaguely worded, anti-gay section 28 law that banned teachers from talking about homosexuality. Since then, he defended his hosting of parliamentary events attended by a controversial Hindu nationalist. Senior Tories distanced themselves from Tapan Ghosh, who gained notoriety in India for his incendiary rhetoric about religious minorities. Blackman said the activist had only been invited to give evidence at a meeting about a report on the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, which places new duties on housing authorities to intervene earlier to prevent homelessness.