Tory voting options outlined

Here are the eight different methods Conservative MPs will vote on for selecting a leader to replace Michael Howard:

• Straight, old-style election among MPs, after party membership has been consulted. e.g. roughly how John Major was elected. Candidates will need 10% support of MPs to stand. Party members are then consulted to get their views. In the old days, this was an informal ring round of local party chairman who had taken the pulse of their members. This time it would be a bit more formal. With the knowledge of how the party members think, the MPs would then vote for their leader in a succession of ballots. This is the option that the 1922 executive is recommending.

• The status quo, namely a succession of ballots among MPs, with the wider party membership choosing between the final shortlist of two in a mass one-member, one-vote election.

• The new so-called "21st Century" recommendations, as set out recently by Francis Maude, party chairman, and Raymond Monbiot, head of the voluntary party. Candidates need support of 10% of MPs. Candidates can spend up to £25,000. Anyone with more than 50% support wins automatically. If no-one has 50%, the voluntary side of the party - in the form of the National Conservative Convention (800 plus association chairmen and other party officials) - votes on the candidates. The important bit is this: whoever comes top of the convention vote is guaranteed a place in all the subsequent ballots of MPs, including the final ballot.

• The same as the previous option, except that whoever comes top of the convention vote is NOT guaranteed a place in the MPs' ballots. The convention vote is simply an expression of opinion by the local party chairmen and others.

• The same as the previous option, except that candidates can spend as much as they want. The £25,000 limit is removed.

• The half and half. MPs choose candidates who have passed "a high threshold". It is not entirely clear what this means, but possibly those who have got, say, the support of around 20% of MPs. These candidates are submitted to a one-member, one-vote election of all party members. The top three or so candidates are then put back before the MPs who choose between them. This is believed to be the option being backed by Ann Widdecombe.

• Leader chosen by a ballot of MPs only, without any consultation of the party membership at all.

• Electoral college. MPs (somehow) choose a shortlist of candidates that goes before an electoral college made up of 60% MPs, 40% party members.