There is no constitutional reason for next PM to call GE2019.

I must admit I do not share the view that because a governing party changes their leader then there should be a General Election to follow.

As Bella Caledonia points out 

Yesterday I tweeted that there’s “only about 70,000 members of the Conservative Party. Basically a dwindling coterie of some of the worst people in Britain are about to choose a candidate from a selection of some of the most repugnant politicians in the UK. That person will be our Prime Minister.”That was untrue.

It turns out the Conservative Party has nearer 120,000 members in the UK (source Laura McAllister & Roger Awan-Scully of Cardiff University).So that means that 0.18% of the UK will soon decide the next Prime Minister of the UK & the fate of the UK.

Of course it is the Monarch  who appoints the Prime MInister (and would probably be the same under a President) the person elected to the leadership of the Tories will have to go Lizzie and ask for permission to form a government

It could be that the election contests so divides the Tories  that he or she may suggest that it is impossible to form a government and either recommend  that Lizzie calls for Jeremy Corbyn to have a go or call a General Election.

Of course we do things differently in the Assembly  and Scottish Parliament where it is the members of that body who approve the next First Minister.

Something that Scottish Tory Leader Ruth Davidson seems to have missed.

Ruth Davidson

@RuthDavidsonMSP

·

May 24

But, obviously, fine for a First Minister to be 'installed' in Bute House without a Holyrood election. Eh, Nicola?

Quote Tweet

Nicola Sturgeon

@NicolaSturgeon

· May 24

2. Her departure will not solve the Brexit mess that the Tories have created. Only putting the matter back to the people can do that. Given current circumstances, it also feels deeply wrong for another Tory to be installed in Number 10 without a General Election.

Show this thread

Some may remember that The Labour party was  faced with deadlock in the Welsh assembly after an informal coalition of Plaid Cymru, the Conservatives and Ukip successfully blocked a vote to reappoint Carwyn Jones as the country’s first minister.

The leader of Plaid Cymru, Leanne Wood, was able to draw level with Jones in the vote on Wednesday, with 29 assembly members each. The nationalist leader received the unlikely support of the Tories and Ukip.

Throwing the process into confusion, the meeting was adjourned until further notice and the parties were expected to begin talks in an attempt to break the stalemate.

Eventually Carwyn Jones became First Minister  but it proved that the leader of the largest party does  not necessarily become become First Minster and the leader of a Coalition does.

The same could be said of Westminster , where we do not seek public approval for a coalition government after an election.

As I have pointed out before  the Prime Minister of such a coalition does not necessarily demand that this would be the leader of the largest party and there would be nothing unconstitutional in a Lab,SNP,Lib Dem, Green  rainbow coalition   that Plaid's Liz Saville Roberts could be UK Prime Minister.

The chances are I admit highly unlikely, but it does show that whoever emerges from the bloodbath of the Tory leadership contest  has no constitutional impairment to becoming Prime Minister and there is no reason he or she should call a General Election.

of course if the contest saw  a rise of the Tories in the polls they man gamble of an election , but unfortunately  that is up to them.