DMcG:
Quite right, the 'rank and file'/membership were not given a vote because one of the two short-listed stood down. And in my view Theresa May was not the person for the job.

A bit off topic, in a way, but relevant to the current PM selection in another.

When you say Theresa May was not the right person for the job in your view, are you saying Andrea Leadsom was?   Because, if not, that speaks to a problem with the members just being the choice between two. I have likened the situation between a magician's forced card. What if the members at large didn't want either of these two, and would have preferred say Penny Mordaunt? "Those are the rules" seems a weak argument to me.