SENIOR Conservative MPs will meet the party’s ruling board today to try to head off a battle over new rules to elect the leader.

Backbenchers are alarmed that the dispute will result in hostilities between MPs, rank-and-file members and senior party officials dominating the summer recess.

MPs are determined to throw out proposals drawn up by the board to give members a major say over who becomes leader. The board wants activists to nominate their leadership candidate, who would automatically be included in a final run-off with a winner chosen by MPs.

Backbenchers will get a chance to express their opposition to the board’s plans when they vote on a series of options at the weekly meeting of the powerful 1922 Committee tomorrow afternoon.

The options range from sticking with the present system, where grassroots members have the final say over two MPs chosen by backbenchers, to MPs having total control over the entire contest.

Senior backbenchers told The Times that the secret negotiations today between the executive of the 1922 Committee and the board, on the eve of the MPs’ vote, are an attempt to head off an impasse between the parliamentary party and the board.

However, many MPs want grassroots members to be included in some way. David Davis, the favourite to succeed Michael Howard, said yesterday that the new leader needed the backing of both. “Any leader has to command support, both in the parliamentary party and in the party in the country.”

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