David Cameron could be gone by August

The Tory backbench 22 Executive has decided to speed up the process of David Cameron’s departure from office.

If MPs can whittle down the candidates to the 2 names that go to Party members quickly enough then his successor could be in office by mid August.

The MPs have said at the very latest there should be a 2 September deadline but in an unanimous vote the MPs decided to bring things forward from the October deadline for a handover that David Cameron talked about in Downing Street on Friday morning.

The longevity of the zombie government that some MPs (amongst others) are complaining about will now depend on how many Tories put themselves up for nomination.

If it were only 3, say, then the MPs’ section of the election process – whittling them down to 2 names – would be finished on Tuesday next week.

The Electoral Reform Society will judge how long is proper for the second process to be watertight in terms of ballot papers getting to Tory Party members and getting back to their counting station. And tomorrow the Tory Party Board will pass its judgement on whether this whole timetable is acceptable.

But with economic indicators slipping and Barclays shares frozen, plus the sense of a political vacuum, the pressure to speed this process up looks likely to triumph.