Francis Urquhart won the election.
The 1991 Conservative Party leadership election was triggered by Henry Collingridge's announcement that he would resign as Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, amid a fabricated scandal involving insider training. The leadership election was won by Chief Whip Francis Urquhart, having systematically eliminated his enemies in the contest, by means of fabricated scandals that he set up himself or publicised.
Voting took place during December 1991. Several members of Collingridge's cabinet put themselves forward as candidates in the election, including Health Secretary Peter MacKenzie, Education Secretary Harold Earle, Foreign Secretary Patrick Woolton and Environment Secretary Michael Samuels. Urquhart initially feigned unwillingness to stand before announcing his candidacy.
With the help of his Junior Whip, Tim Stamper, Urquhart went about making sure his competitors dropped out of the race. The first ballot left Urquhart to face Woolton and Samuels. Urquhart eliminated Woolton by a prolonged scheme, and Samuels was forced out of the when the tabloids revealed that he backed leftist causes as a student at University of Cambridge. Urquhart also received support from Collingridge, who was unaware of Urquhart's role in his own downfall.
In the final ballot on New Year's Eve 1991, Urquhart was elected to lead the party, and assumed the premiership on New Year's Day 1992.
Background to the contest[]
Following the resignation of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the moderate but indecisive Henry Collingridge emerges as both Thatcher's successor and the leader of the Conservative Party after winning the 1990 Conservative Party leadership election; the party wins the next general election with a reduced majority. Shortly afterwards, Chief Whip Francis Urquhart submits a memorandum to Collingridge advocating a cabinet reshuffle that would contemplate a prominent ministerial position for Urquhart himself. Urquhart believed that the time had come for change in Britain, and he proposed the appointment of many rural and right-wing Conservatives. However, Collingridge discards Urquhart's proposals on the basis that doing so would probably adversely affect the party's popularity. Enraged, Urquhart begins plotting an intricate, long-term political revenge.
At the same time, with the blessing of his wife Elizabeth, Urquhart begins an affair with Mattie Storin, a junior political reporter at a Conservative-leaning tabloid newspaper called The Chronicle. The affair allows Urquhart to manipulate Mattie and indirectly skew her coverage of the Conservative leadership contest in his favour. Mattie has an apparent Electra complex; she finds appeal in Urquhart's much older age and later refers to him as "Daddy". Another unwitting pawn is Roger O'Neill, the party's cocaine-addicted public relations consultant.
Urquhart blackmails O'Neill into leaking information on budget cuts that humiliates Collingridge during the Prime Minister's Questions. Later, he blames party chairman Lord Theodore "Teddy" Billsborough for leaking an internal poll showing a drop in Tory numbers, leading Collingridge to sack him. As Collingridge's image suffers, Urquhart encourages ultraconservative Foreign Secretary Patrick Woolton and Chronicle owner Benjamin Landless to support his removal. He also poses as Collingridge's alcoholic brother Charles to trade shares in a chemical company about to benefit from advance information confidential to the government. Consequently, Collingridge becomes falsely accused of insider trading and is forced to resign.
Urquhart's candidacy and eventual victory[]
Urquhart announcing his candidacy in the election
In the ensuing leadership race, Urquhart initially feigns unwillingness to stand before announcing his candidacy. With the help of his Junior Whip, Tim Stamper, Urquhart goes about making sure his competitors drop out of the race: Health Secretary Peter MacKenzie accidentally runs his car over a disabled protester at a demonstration staged by Urquhart and is forced by the public outcry to withdraw, while Education Secretary Harold Earle is blackmailed into withdrawing when Urquhart anonymously sends pictures of him in the company of a rent boy whom Earle had paid for sex.
The first ballot leaves Urquhart to face Woolton and Michael Samuels, the moderate Environment Secretary supported by Billsborough. Urquhart eliminates Woolton by a prolonged scheme: at the party conference, he pressures O'Neill into persuading his personal assistant and lover, Penny Guy, to have a one-night stand with Woolton in his suite, which Urquhart records via a bugged ministerial red box. When the tape is sent to Woolton, he is led to assume that Samuels is behind the scheme and backs Urquhart in the contest. Urquhart also receives support from Collingridge, who is unaware of Urquhart's role in his own downfall. Samuels is forced out of the running when the tabloids reveal that he backed leftist causes as a student at University of Cambridge.
Stumbling across contradictions in the allegations against Collingridge and his brother, Storin begins to dig deeper. On Urquhart's orders, O'Neill arranges for her car and flat to be vandalised in a show of intimidation. However, O'Neill becomes increasingly uneasy with what he is being asked to do, and his cocaine addiction adds to his instability. Urquhart mixes O'Neill's cocaine with rat poison, causing him to kill himself when taking the cocaine in a motorway service station lavatory on the M27 at Rownhams. Though initially blind to the truth of matters thanks to her relations with Urquhart, Storin eventually deduces that Urquhart is responsible for O'Neill's death and is behind the unfortunate downfalls of Collingridge and all of Urquhart's rivals.
Storin looks for Urquhart at the point when it seems his victory is certain. She eventually finds him on the roof garden of the Houses of Parliament, where she confronts him. He admits to O'Neill's murder and everything else he has done. He then asks whether he can trust Storin, and, though she answers in the affirmative, he does not believe her and throws her off the roof onto a van parked below. After winning the final ballot, Urquhart is driven to Buckingham Palace to be invited by Queen Elizabeth II to form a government as Prime Minister. Urquhart accepts the Queen's invitation to form a government, beginning his premiership.