ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog

News of the World attacks "greedy" Tory MEPs

Both the News of the World and the Independent on Sunday spotlight MEPs today - particularly Tory MEPs - and the benefits they receive for being parliamentarians.

The top target for the News of the World is Sir Robert Atkins:

"Tory toff North West MEP Sir Robert Atkins, pictured above, has admitted paying his pensioner wife Lady Dulcie Mary Atkins, also pictured above, over £30,000 a year as his secretary. She squeezes this role in alongside her work as a busy member of Wyre Borough Council, and Garstang Town Council, as well as holding down a string of community and charitable commitments. But Sir Robert is generous with public funds—our records show that back in 2002 HIS SON James was also on the payroll at £2,513.23 a month."

Asked to explain these payments, Sir Robert Atkins told the News of the World: "It's very complicated and I don't suppose any of your readers would understand it."  We're happy to give this page to Sir Robert to provide an explanation of this use of taxpayers' money.  We'll print what he sends us in full, unedited.

Also under scrutiny from the NotW is Giles Chichester MEP, leader of the party's delegation:

"South West MEP Giles Chichester, has now admitted paying his wife Virginia up to £30,000 as a PART-TIME assistant.  He is also paying up to £30,000 of taxpayers' cash to his family firm Francis Chichester Ltd which publishes maps and guide books.  He claims that the company provides him with secretarial help."

The Sunday Times had spotlighted Mr Chichester and Den Dover MEP in March.

Today's Independent on Sunday also questions the integrity of Tory and other MEPs.  Reporter Andy Rowell lists a number of cases of MEPs taking gifts from industries they are paid to regulate.  Giles Chichester, again, and Malcolm Harbour MEP are questioned by the newspaper:

• "[Malcolm Harbour] is a leading figure in the debate on carbon dioxide and fuel efficiency in Brussels. Since 2004, Mr Harbour has been loaned 18 cars by the industry. Also courtesy of the car industry, he has attended Grand Prix races and received cross-country driving instruction.  Provided they declare any interest, MEPs are not breaking any regulations. Mr Harbour says he drives cars because he needs "to understand what is going on, and I declare it as I feel that I have nothing to hide"."
• "Giles Chichester, Tory leader in the parliament, is also president of the European Energy Forum, which promotes the interests of the oil, gas and nuclear industries. In May 2007, he was the guest of nuclear company Areva at the America's Cup race off Valencia. Mr Chichester says the trip had no bearing on his long-held pro-nuclear views."

David Cameron recently won a battle with MEPs to force them to disclose more about their pay and expenses.  But, given today's revelations, a commitment to transparency may not be enough.  Certain practices may need to be outlawed.

> News of the World video here.

Chris Mullin quits in face of the Tories' 'Sunderland surge'

The Sunderland Echo is reporting that veteran Labour MP Chris Mullin won't be contesting the new Sunderland Central seat at the next General Election.  Mr Mullin had been adopted for the seat but appears to have had a change of heart.

Has it got anything to do with the Tories' 'Sunderland surge'?  Ten years ago the Conservatives had just four seats on Sunderland council.  They now have 22, gaining five more at the local elections.  Labour have 48 seats.

The projected Labour majority is a large 9,040 for Sunderland Central but if you add up the votes in the nine wards that voted on 1st May and make up the seat you get the following numbers:

• Conservative 10,573 (40%)
• Labour 8,099 (31%)
• Liberal Democrat 3,788 (14%)
• BNP 2,845 (11%)
• Independent 1,203 (5%)

Those familar with election nights will know that Sunderland Central is likely to be the first seat to declare.  It would be quite something if Lee Martin - our candidate pictured below with David Cameron and (right) Cllr Peter Wood (Wearside Chairman) is the first declared MP of the next Parliament.  Our MEP in the region, Martin Callanan, describes Cllr Martin as "star quality".  Good luck to Lee.

Meet Edward Timpson... the next Conservative MP for Crewe and Nantwich?

With your help he could be.  ConservativeHome is organising a coach next Sunday (18th) from London to Crewe.  We've got about twenty people who have said 'yes' so far to joining us.  Please click here for information about coming along too.

CCHQ mustn't delay Henley by-election

We know that there is going to be a by-election for Boris Johnson's Henley seat.  David Cameron confirmed as much during his press conference on Tuesday.

The LibDems are already gearing up.  They've started a lively website, opened a campaign HQ and they plan to select their candidate on Monday.

The party is understandably focused on the Crewe campaign - as are we - but let's not delay for long.  We don't want the LibDems building up a head of steam.  Let's select a local person and let's select that person quickly.

Fancy a coach trip to Crewe and Nantwich?

Please email us if you're available on Sunday 18th May to travel with fellow ConservativeHome readers from London up to Crewe for a day of campaigning.

We are planning on hiring a coach - ideally with wireless!

PS The Tory website for the campaign is here.

Tory grassroots seek parliamentary candidates with distinctive skills, history of loyalty to party, of any gender

In ConservativeHome's end-April survey of the Tory grassroots we asked party members to rate the importance of various characteristics when it comes to the selection of Conservative candidates for parliamentary seats.

The graphic on the right summarises the results.

At the end of the survey we also asked an open question as to other characteristics that would be important in a selection.  Here are some of the verbatim responses to that open question, (chosen to be representative of the replies given):

1. Speaking straight, without the jargon
2. Knowledge of the particular area. If yellow stronghold then knowledge of them important.
3. Proof they are actually Conservative and not just a careerist jumping on the Conservaitive party Bandwagon to further their own careers through a political medium.
4. Not from the political class
5. A successful life outside politics!
6. Willingness to work and lead instead of talk!   
7. Must be prepared to do what is best for their constituency above political ideolgy or party loyalty.
8. Evidence of achievement outside politics, eg running a successful business, charity work, overcoming a big disadvantage or challenge in life.
9. Must be capable of original thinking, not just a clone.
10. Hard-working.
11. Sadly, ability to look/sound good on TV.
12. The ability to form a strong, loyal, and enthusiastic group of workers around them.
13. Aptitude for holding executive to account, not just as potential Minister.
14. Prepared to be seen about the constituency on a very regular basis.
15. Ability to relate to people at all social levels.

A hunger for candidates from outside of politics was noticeable.  Westminster village candidates beware!

Conservatives can win Crewe (with YOUR help)

A shadow cabinet minister told ConservativeHome yesterday that the by-election campaign in Crewe was the best organised that he'd ever seen.  He said there is no waiting around - like in so many previous campaigns he has attended but there's an almost immediate tasking once you arrive at the Tory campaign HQ, just ten minutes from Crewe railway station.

The Conservatives have already distributed two leaflets.  We republished one yesterday.  And now we're seeing this bar chart distributed throughout the seat - based on these numbers from last Thursday's local election results. 

IT'S CLEAR THAT THIS SEAT CAN BE WON.  LET'S PUT SOME ICING ON LAST THURSDAY'S CAKE AND MAKE EDWARD TIMPSON THE NEXT MP FOR CREWE AND NANTWICH.

If you can get to Crewe and Nantwich to help between now and the 22nd May please call 07594 567273 or email campaign.support@conservatives.com.

And if you - particularly our male readers - need another reason for going to Crewe then you should know that Miss Great Britain is also standing as a candidate.  You might bump into her and woo her for the cause!

Mrs Pickles would like you to join her on holiday... in Crewe

Quote of the day from Benedict Brogan:

"Mrs Pickles was promised a lavish holiday after the local elections campaign, and I'm delighted to report that she's loving Crewe and Nantwich."

BB reports that the Conservatives are already on their third leaflet drop.  We had only heard of two leaflet drops in three days but it may be that Ben is better informed.  Whatever: It's an impressive start to a campaign being coordinated by Mr Eric Pickles and Stephen Gilbert.

Here is an example of the latest campaign literature - click to enlarge:

And so, to repeat, and not for the last time: If you can get to Crewe and Nantwich to help between now and the 22nd May please call 07594 567273 or email campaign.support@conservatives.com.

Tories paint Tamsin Dunwoody as "outsider" who won't stand up to Gordon Brown

We learnt overnight that Gwyneth Dunwood's daughter, Tamsin, has been adopted by the Crewe and Nantwich Labour Party as its candidate to succeed her mother.  Tory candidate Edward Timpson has wasted no time in trying to present the Labour candidate as an "outsider"* - living 175 miles away - who, unlike her mother, won't stand up to Gordon Brown:

“I’d like to congratulate Tamsin Dunwoody on becoming the Labour Party candidate in Crewe and Nantwich.  And I look forward to a campaign in which we can really debate the issues that matter to people in Crewe and Nantwich.  As a local man, who has lived and worked in the area all my life, I understand the worries and concerns of local people. 

“At a time when families are struggling with rising food, petrol and utility bills, they need help with the cost of living.  But Gordon Brown hit them when he got rid of the 10p tax band.  When violent crime in the local area has trebled, we need the police on the beat, not behind desks.  When local services are threatened with closure, we need an MP who campaigns to keep them open.  And we need more support for local services, with the NHS, local housing and schools under pressure because of increases in the population.

“Above all, we need an MP who will stand up to Gordon Brown and his Government.  Tamsin Dunwoody’s career in the Welsh Assembly suggests she won’t do that.  The only way you can send a message to Gordon Brown is by voting for me on May 22nd.”

If you can get to Crewe and Nantwich to help between now and the 22nd May please call 07594 567273 or email campaign.support@conservatives.com.

* Headline of Tory press release: "Edward Timpson: Tamsin Dunwoody is an outsider who won’t stand up to Gordon Brown"  Download PDF of Edward Timpson's letter to Tamsin Dunwoody.  

Related link: Thursday night's local election results were encouraging for Tory prospects in this by-election.

And now let's win Crewe and Nantwich...

While we wait and wait for the London results here is some very good news... from Crewe and Nantwich based on last night's local election results:

BUT NOTHING CAN BE TAKEN FOR GRANTED BUT WHAT IS CLEAR IS THAT THIS IS A TWO HORSE RACE BETWEEN LABOUR AND THE CONSERVATIVES.

If you can get to Crewe and Nantwich to help between now and the 22nd May please call 07594 567273 or email campaign.support@conservatives.com.

George Osborne is coming to the constituency tomorrow afternoon. Please do get in touch for more details.

Here's a map - please click to enlarge:

Tories gear up for two by-election fights

Boris Johnson's seven month abstention from alcohol may end tonight - whatever the result - but the Conservative Party's campaigning operation will continue to motor.  Two by-elections are likely to test the party machine in the coming weeks: one is a certain, in Crewe, and the second is likely, in Henley.

The Times reports that "Boris Johnson will remain an Oxfordshire MP for up to a year if he becomes Mayor of London in the closest race since the post was created in 2000".  That is not our understanding.  We are expecting the Henley by-election to happen very quickly should Boris win.  CCHQ do not want to give the LibDem candidate lots of time to mount a serious challenge.

Meanwhile, up in Crewe and Nantwich, the local Conservative Association Chairman, Donald Potter, has today written to his Labour oppositew number pledging a pause in active campaigning "during Gwyneth Dunwoody’s funeral on Thursday 8 May, and for an appropriate period of time either side."

Tory candidate Edward Timpson issued this statement:

“Gwyneth Dunwoody was a much-loved and well respected Member of Parliament. We fully respect her family’s decision to have a swift by-election campaign.  All the parties will want to make the most of the time between now and 22 May, as there won’t be long for voters to make up their mind about who Crewe & Nantwich’s next MP should be. However, as it’s unusual for a by-election campaign to be in full swing during the funeral of the previous MP, we felt it would be respectful to pause campaigning next Thursday afternoon and for an appropriate time either side of the service. My Association Chairman has written to the local Labour Chairman today to let him know our intentions.”

The Western Mail has some background on Tamzin Dunwoody - the late MP's daughter - and the likely Labour candidate for Crewe.

9.30am: In Parliament the two Winterton MPs challenge the "discourtesy and insensitivity" of moving by-election writ before Gwyneth Dunwoody's funeral

Should selected Tory candidates be subject to compulsory re-adoption in the event of a by-election?

Both Iain Dale (indecent haste to call a by-election) and Guido (Labour using a condolence book for Gwyneth Dunwoody to harvest email addresses) have both been examining Gordon Brown's effort to keep hold of the seat of Crewe and Nantwich when the by-election is fought on 22nd May.

Also on the case is UK Polling Report's Anthony Wells.  Anthony writes that the Tories should be able to win the seat if current opinion polls are accurate.

Within his UKPR piece he notes that the LibDem candidate has had to resign.  This, apparently, is their normal practice for by-elections.  The theory is that a person deemed right to fight a seat the party is unlikely to win in a General Election might be a different person from who the party would want to represent it when the seat is being fought as a by-election with all of the associated national publicity.

What do you think of the Conservatives adopting the same rule?

By all accounts our already selected candidate - Edward Timpson - is performing well (including, as the photo suggests, campaigning on the hot issue of post office closures).  He lives in the area, although just outside of the constituency, and has been campaigning effectively since being selected.  But is there a case in future (not for this contest) for local party members to be invited to reconsider their decision in the event of a by-election.  We emphasise the need for "local party members" to keep the final say.  What do readers think?

How many people in today's politics have run a business or served in their country's armed forces?

There was a very good article in yesterday's The Sunday Times that worried about the absence of business people in politics.  It also noted that few modern day politicians had experience of the military or of life outside of politics.  It worried that there were too many career politicians and suggested that the expense of running for office was excluding people who had engaged in sacrifical service in the voluntary and social enterprise sectors.  The article asked if these representative failures were connected with the incompetence of modern government.

Actually that article didn't appear in The Sunday Times or in any newspaper.  Instead we had a super-long feature in The Sunday Times about the feminisation of politics across Europe:

• Zapatero's Spanish cabinet has more women than men (pictured).
• Seven of Sarkozy's fifteen Cabinet ministers are women.
• Berlusconi has promised to put four women in his top team.
• Five members of Germany's Cabinet are women in addition to Chancellor Merkel herself.
• Ten of Norway's 19 top ministers are women and most Scandinavian nations now have 'zipper systems' that require one woman to be appointed for every man appointed to a political position.

David Cameron intends to discriminate in favour of women here, too.  More than half of his A list were women, women got higher rankings in MEP selection even if they received fewer votes than men and now he aspires to appoint women to a third of all ministerial jobs.

ConservativeHome recently asked Tory members: "Do you agree with David Cameron's aspiration for a third of all ministers to be women in the next Conservative Government?"

30% of the more than 1,500 who responded said 'yes', 60% said 'no'.

The aspiration to remove unfairnesses to women (and ethnic minorities) is right but where is the discussion and concern about the business people, soldiers and social entrepreneurs missing from today's politics?  There is something terribly lopsided about the debate.

Conservative candidates who are making headlines

Three of our candidates - Shaun Bailey, Charlotte Leslie and David Bull - featured in yesterday's Telegraph magazine as candidates you wouldn't (it was said) have expected to be Tories in the past.

It was a good feature.

Other candidates also deserve credit for getting the Conservative Party in the national news.

A report on falling wages from Charlie Elphicke, for example, - our candidate in Dover and CentreRight contributor - features in today's News of the World (not online).  Click on the graphic below to enlarge our scan of the 'Outwage' story that the NotW's Ian Kirby wrote on the back of Charlie's work:

Three candidates stand out as 'super media operators':

• Shaun Bailey, our Hammersmith candidate, who has great authority on all questions of social justice.  He was on Radio 4 last night taking part in an extended discussion on parenting.
• Zac Goldsmith - the handsome face of conservative environmentalism and a leading media opponent of a third runway for Heathrow; a major issue in lots of must-win London seats (as Boris has recognised) including Zac's own seat of Richmond.*
• Louise Bagshawe - not just a prominent blogger and panelist on programmes like Any Questions? and Question Time but Louise also won significant coverage for exposing how her Corby constituency had been deemed 'too white' for public sector jobs.

Other candidates who have made the headlines since being elected include Tooting's Mark Clarke and South Ribble's Lorraine Fullbrook.  Mark Clarke exposed a infection scandal at St George's Hospital in Tooting and as well as prominent coverage in The Sun, there was also headline attention from the London Evening Standard, Channel 4 News, BBC London and London Tonight.  Lorraine Fullbrook's campaign against police mergers in Lancashire was hugely successful.  It won a great deal of coverage and made a significant contribution to scuppering the Clarke-Reid plans for police regionalisation.

Which other candidates have been making national waves?  Please email us and we'll update this post later in the week.

* ConservativeHome supports airport expansion but that's a subject for another day and we're glad that Cameron and Osborne have declined to back the anti-Heathrow stance.

List of constituencies and Conservative MPs/PPCs

With the local elections almost upon us we thought it would be worthwhile providing a list of all of the Conservative Associations and their parliamentary spokesmen. By linking to the constituency and/or parliamentary spokesmen websites we hope to improve their search engine rankings when voters search for the constituency name or the name of the candidate/MP.

If you have a blog or website please feel free to copy the list below and reproduce it so as to increase their rankings even more.

Many thanks to David Webster for doing all of the hard work in compiling this list.

nnIn order to make this as useful and accurate a resource as possible please add a comment below or email us if you spot any errors or know of a website address or selected candidate that isn't yet included...

A

Aberavon – No candidate
Aberconwy – Guto Bebb
Aberdeen North – No candidate
Aberdeen South – Mark Jones
Aberdeenshire West and Kincardine – Alex Johnstone
Airdrie and Shotts – No candidate
Aldershot – Gerald Howarth MP
Aldridge-Brownhills – Richard Shepherd MP
Altrincham and Sale West – Graham Brady MP
Alyn and Deeside – Will Gallagher
Amber Valley – Nigel Mills
Angus – Alberto Costa
Arfon – No candidate
Argyll and Bute – Caroline Brodie
Arundel and South Downs – Nick Herbert MP
Ashfield – No candidate
Ashford – Damian Green MP
Ashton under Lyne – No candidate
Aylesbury – David Lidington MP
Ayr Carrick and Cumnock – No candidate
Ayrshire Central – Phil Gallie
Ayrshire North and Arran – Philip Lardner

Hazel Grove Tories to tour constituency with double deckered surgery bus

Boris Johnson isn't the only Conservative who loves Routemaster buses.

Annesley Abercorn - our candidate in Hazel Grove - is a big fan too and has decided their easy hop-on, hop-off rear entrance make them ideal as mobile constituency surgeries.

Annesley intends to take his double decker bus around Hazel Grove on a regular basis.  He plans to take the bus to different parts of this LibDem-held seat on at least two weekends every month.  Local residents will be encouraged to hop on board to collect literature, meet Annesley and other members of the local Conservative team.  People will be invited to bring casework concerns with them.

If Chris Kelly has the largest banner advertisement in British politics, Annesley must have the largest surgery!

Please email us with other interesting campaigning ideas.

Nigel Hastilow accuses mainstream parties of driving voters into the hands of the BNP

Nigel Hastilow had to resign as Tory candidate for Halesowen and Rowley Regis last November after implying that Enoch Powell was right about immigration.

Mr Hastilow has returned to the subject in an article for The Sunday Telegraph to promote his forthcoming book.

In many ways, he writes, Powell was right:

"Powell remains the only nationally known politician to have had the courage to question an immigration policy which was moderately under control 40 years ago, but certainly is not any more.  He was right to argue that towns and cities were changing before people's eyes as a result of immigration and that those who lived in them had never been consulted. That, surely, is the most pertinent point of all.  Whatever the accuracy of Powell's predictions, and however strong his language, his main argument was that the country was "undergoing the total transformation to which there is no parallel in a thousand years of English history".  That is more true today than it was four decades ago. The level of immigration in the intervening years has been higher than Powell foresaw; the consequences are more far-reaching.  One of the most obvious is the demand for land, infrastructure and housing. Across Britain, local battles are taking place over plans to build three million more houses to accommodate our ever-expanding population."

He accuses mainstream politicians of a "conspiracy of silence" on the issue of immigration:

"For many politicians, immigration is the subject which dare not speak its name.  That's why so many people feel betrayed. Their elected representatives refuse to articulate the voters' concerns with anything approximating honesty. The conspiracy of silence among mainstream politicians is calculated to drive decent men and women into the arms of extremists.  The BNP is bound to flourish when anyone who tries to discuss immigration openly is howled down by cries of "racist"."

We're suspending our campaign on MEP selection

For over a week we've been asking CCHQ about why the party won't publish data on the MEP selection process.  We raised the same issues with David Cameron 48 hours ago.  We still haven't heard anything back.  That's unusual.  CCHQ normally answers our queries quickly.  We noted the quality of the party's press operation on Saturday, for example.

We are not going to give up.  ConservativeHome was founded on the principle of protecting party democracy and we are going to keep going until we get answers and a review of what went wrong in this election - particularly in terms of spoilt ballot papers.

We're suspending our efforts until 2nd May, however.  We don't want to distract from our candidates' chances in the local and London elections.  Noone at CCHQ has asked us to do this.  This is our own decision but this campaign will return on 2nd May...

David Cameron promises to investigate why data on turnout and spoilt ballot papers isn't being published

ConservativeHome is just back from David Cameron's monthly press conference.  We asked about the MEP selection process and whether David Cameron would investigate CCHQ's decision not to publish turnout and spoilt ballots data.

Mr Cameron replied that he had read ConservativeHome's account of the process and would talk to Caroline Spelman about the issue of data publication and report back later today.

He defended two aspects of the selection process.  He said that it was right that MEPs became more like MPs and enjoyed a little more benefit from their incumbency than they had in the past and he also said that he wanted more women MEPs and the changes justified the long-term benefit.

What is John Maples hiding?

Still no news as to whether John Maples MP, head of candidates and returning officer, will publish more data on the MEP election process (the undemocratic nature of which we catalogued on Thursday).  It seems to us that there are three possible main explanations for this failure of transparency:

• A wish to hide poor turnout: Which may be as low as 20% if membership is stable at approximately 250,000;
• A wish to hide the extent of spoilt ballot papers: Some reports suggest 15% to 20% rates of spoiling;
• A wish to hide declining membership: On Friday we asked CCHQ to confirm or deny a new membership figure leaked to us but have not heard anything back.

What others are saying about the gerrymandered MEP selection

Yesterday we catalogued the undemocratic 'fixes' that characterised the MEP selection process.  We are grateful to other bloggers who have come to our support...

"This won’t be picked up on Fleet Street, as MEPs are such a boring business. But it raises serious questions about the Conservatives’ commitment to localism in running the country, if this is how they treat their own party members." - Fraser Nelson

"It is odd to say the Electoral Reform Society oversaw an election where candidates were not allowed to campaign, their election addresses were censored, scrutineers were not allowed at the count, the number of votes cast for each candidate was not made public, the turnout was not announced, and the number of spoilt ballot papers was kept secret. The Conservative Party often sends people abroad to teach third world political parties how to run elections. I wonder if anyone has been to North Korea recently... The battle for democracy in European selections may have been lost this time, but the war has to continue." - Iain Dale

"The Tory modernisers under Cameron have made much of their supposed commitment to devolving power from the centre and seeking to encourage a regeneration of civic society. This is hailed, by some, as the development of an alternative theory of the state and is supposed to be the philosophical centre of gravity of Cameroonism. And then when it comes to the affairs of their own party they indulge in old-fashioned stitch-ups and anti-democratic practices. What does that tell the rest of us about their instincts? Cameron will refuse and hope it goes away, but he should order an internal investigation." - Iain Martin

"ConservativeHome, which is not just the premier Right-of-Centre blog in Britain, but one of the most successful political blogs anywhere, has launched a scathing critique of the system... Not that I’m complaining: I have, after all, just won under these rules. But I do hope that, when the Conservatives come to repeat this process in five years’ time, they will apply to their own party the principles by which they aspire to govern: democracy, transparency and maximum participation. The purest way to do so would be to hold an open primary. Failing that, a postal ballot with minimal restrictions." - Dan Hannan MEP 

"Conservative Home is telling the inside story of the outrageous way in which Eurofanatics in the Conservative Party have rigged the reselection process for MEPs. The piece records how sitting MEPs escaped democratic scrutiny from the party's member. Read the whole piece and weep." - Richard North, EU Referendum

"Political parties suffer from a declining sense of connection to the public. One of the ways they can overcome that is to rebuild their membership base, reversing decades of decline, and encouraging people to join, and even put themselves forward for public office is a core part of that. If, on the other hand, a remote clique deny ordinary members that right, they perhaps shouldn't be surprised if the politically active go elsewhere to express themselves. I wish Tim Montgomerie and the ConservativeHome participants every good fortune in winning their battle for greater democracy within the Conservative Party. It isn't in anyone's interests to see the politics of the closed shop be successful, regardless of party..." - Liberal Bureaucracy

"It pains me to see the party, of which I am proud to be a member, employing selection processes that would frankly embarass a corrupt dictatorship. This should not be swept under the carpet or dismissed as 'one of those things'. Conservatives should stand up and make clear the way the selections have been handled by CCHQ is unacceptable ." - Cllr Tony Sharp

Thanks too to Jonathan Isaby, Glyn Davies, Guido Fawkes and others for linking. There were also lots of interesting and supportive comments on our post, such as:

• Richard Robinson on the benefits of open democracy
• Association Chairman points out Caroline Abel Smith's role
• John Strafford believes the Chairman should be elected
• Jules notes the lack of any refutation
• Former European Candidate outlines similar problems in the previous selection
• Dontmakemelaugh reveals an extract from The Sport of Foot Shooting

The story of how the party's EU enthusiasts fixed the MEP selection process

ConservativeHome first came to prominence when we coordinated initial efforts to oppose Michael Howard's attempts to end grassroots involvement in the election of the Conservative leader.  We blogged on the subject on an almost daily basis and coordinated the early national media effort to stop the rolling back of party democracy.  Those efforts were successful and David Cameron was eventually elected Tory leader with the full confidence of the voluntary party.  If that's where we began that's what we still believe today.  This site's manifesto includes a commitment to argue for a Conservative Party that embodies the localism and democracy that it recommends for the nation.

If we were successful in 2005 we have been comprehensively defeated in the last year.  The opponents of party democracy - or more accurately the defenders of a cadre of MEPs supportive of further integration and unrepresentative of mainstream party opinion - have ran a selection process that has protected incumbency and subverted party democracy.  They did so in clear opposition to the wishes of party members.  78% of grassroots members told ConservativeHome that all sitting MEPs should be subject to a full vote.  This brief note is a record of how sitting MEPs escaped democratic scrutiny from the party's members.  For anyone ever wanting to fix an election it includes lots of helpful tips...

FULL RECORD OF HOW AN ELECTION WAS FIXED

Grassroots members were prevented from deselecting incumbents.  The decision from which the other abuses flow was the decision to ensure that sitting MEPs could not lose their places at the top of the regional lists which determine the likelihood of being elected to the European Parliament.  Timothy Kirkhope MEP, then Leader of the Tory MEPs, and Caroline Abel Smith, responsible for European issues on the Party Board, wanted to ensure that rank-and-file members could not oust incumbent MEPs.  They feared a backlash from grassroots members who had seen many MEPs undermine the leadership's position on the EPP and who had been consistently supportive of European integration.  They knew that members would be much better informed of MEPs' voting records in this internet age and they knew that that would spell disaster for a number of MEPs' careers.  Their initial proposal to the Party Board was that individual members should have no role in reselection.  This was thwarted by Francis Maude and the MPs and elected representatives of the voluntary party that sit on the Party Board.  They guaranteed that grassroots members should rank all non-incumbent candidates but only after Regional Selection Committees had decided whether sitting MEPs should automatically be at the top of the lists.  The grassroots would be limited to ranking non-incumbents and deciding whether Sitting MEP 1 should be ranked higher than Sitting MEP 2 or 3.  The grassroots would have no powers of deselection - something that Timothy Kirkhope claimed as one of his proudest achievements when unsuccessfully restanding as MEP leader last November.  We predicted that the RSCs would rubber stamp every MEP and they did.

Female candidates won better MEP slots even though they received fewer votes.  The decision to guarantee that a woman candidate was automatically at the top of the non-incumbent list regardless of how many votes she had received reflected two things: (1) The fact that the existing MEP delegation included just one woman, Caroline Jackson, and she was retiring and (2) The Cameron's leadership's commitment to increase the representativeness of the party.  If incumbents hadn't been protected the election of more women would have been natural.  We believe that, for example, North West Tories would have preferred Jacqui Foster or Fiona Bruce to Sajjad Karim MEP, and Therese Coffey and Sarah Richardson would have been preferred to James Elles MEP in the South East.  The rigging of the system in favour of incumbents prevented this.  CCHQ felt they had to give women special treatment and we ended up with most women receiving less votes than male candidates but being given higher places on the list by the party's preferential system.

Rochester & Strood by-election

Message from Rochester & Strood Conservatives:

"On Thursday 8th May there will be a local government by-election in the Rochester South & Horsted Ward of Medway Council. Given this is in one of the few remaning notional Conservative seats not to have selected their Parliamentary Candidate, we anticipate there will be many willing volunteers, especially as he Parliamentary selection is scheduled to start towards the end of May.  If anyone would like to offer Mutual Aid please email conservative_action@yahoo.co.uk.  A Mutual Aid form will be sent back by return."

Rochester & Strood also held a campaign day for candidates last November following their parliamentary selection being postponed in June.

We don't normally publicise local by-election campaigns as there are so many of them. Click here for the Campaign Together website if you want to see details on helping out in upcoming by-elections.

Gerald Michaluk selected for Ochil and South Perthshire

The Managing Director of a marketing management company and former Holyrood candidate in Glasgow said:

"I feel privileged to have been selected to stand for the Ochil and South Perthshire Constituency, having been to school in Rumbling Bridge, Kinross-shire. It is like coming home."

In 2005 the SNP were just 600 votes behind, and the Conservatives 4600 behind.

Were 20% of ballot papers in the MEP selection process spoilt?

Yesterday we highlighted the fact that most women in top MEP slots received fewer votes than male rivals.  What we don't yet have from CCHQ is data on spoilt ballots.  We hope that this information will still be forthcoming.  ConservativeHome has been told that the proportion of spoilt ballot papers may be as high as 20% in one region, 15% in another.  That would be extraordinary if true and would point to the need for a much simpler voting system next time.  The 15% and 20% figures may be very wrong but we won't know if John Maples, as returning officer, doesn't follow the route of full transparency.

Most women in top MEP slots received fewer votes than male rivals

CCHQ has just published the number of points that each MEP candidate was awarded in last week's elections.  It reveals that few women would have been awarded top slots if the preferential system had not been in place:

In London Marina Yannakoudis was awarded the highest place for non-incumbents although three men - JP Floru, Warwick Lightfoot and Bob Seely - all won more support from the grassroots.

In the South East Therese Coffey and Sarah Richardson beat all men in the voting.

In the Eastern region Vicky Ford was awarded the highest place for non-incumbents even though John Flack won more support from members.

In the East Midlands Emma McClarkin was awarded second place even though Rupert Matthews received a better vote from members.

In the West Midlands Anthea McIntyre finished ahead of all men in terms of grassroots support.

In Yorkshire and the Humber Fleur Butler was ranked ahead of Matthew Bean and Nick Burrows although they both received more support from the grassroots.

In the North East Barbara Musgrave was awarded second place although Richard Bell enjoyed more support.

In the North West Jacqueline Foster and Fiona Bruce won more support than any of the non-incumbent men in the selection.  Fiona Bruce has apparently dropped out after very narrowly finishing behind Jacqueline Foster.

In the South West Julie Girling received slightly less support than Ashley Fox but was ranked above him.

In Wales Dr Kay Swinburne was awarded top place although Evan Price won more support from the grassroots.

In Scotland Belinda Don and Helen Gardiner both beat all men in the voting.

IN CONCLUSION: Supporters of the preferential ranking for women will say that these results vindicate the system.  Without it they say far fewer women would be in positions where they could be elected as MEPs. Critics will say that candidates less respected by the grassroots have prospered and will wonder if this system has really produced the candidates best qualified to be MEPs.

We do not yet know if CCHQ will publish turnout and spoilt ballots data.

Will CCHQ publish the full results of last week's MEP selections?

John Maples MP has replied to ConservativeHome's email of Friday promising that "on Monday we will return to the issue of publishing more information."  The email was sent on Saturday, by Monday he means today.

We hope that Mr Maples, returning officer for these elections, will publish (for all regions) the kind of information that ConservativeHome has received for the South Eastern regional rankings (remembering that lower scores/ points mean a higher ranking):

1. Daniel Hannan MEP: 24,509
2. Richard Ashworth MEP: 29,567
3. Nirj Deva MEP: 35,054
4. James Elles MEP: 44,120
5. Therese Coffey: 31,274
6. Sarah Richardson: 40,515
7. Richard Robinson: ??
8. Tony Devenish: ??
9. Nina Kaariniemi: 54,295
10. Marc Brunel-Walker: 60,909

What these results show is that Therese Coffey and Sarah Richardson won the top places below that of the incumbent MEPs by winning most support of members.  They didn't get their 'top-of-the-non-MEPs-slots' by fulfilling the quotas imposed by CCHQ.

What we don't have for the South East is turnout data and number of spoilt ballot papers.  Let's hope we get that data for all regions as well today.

The full story of MEP candidate selection needs to be written...

Conservative HQ has rarely managed an election process so aggressively as it has managed this round of MEP candidate selections.

We are compiling a for-the-record list of the restrictions that CCHQ placed on the process that ended yesterday with the results of regional rankings...

The exclusion of the whole membership from vetting incumbent MEPs, restrictions on hustings, the preferential treatment of women candidates so that they have leapfrogged men who won more votes, the confusing nature of the voting process that has led to large number of ballot papers being spoilt...

Please email any observations to us so that we can produce a comprehensive record. All submissions will be treated in strictest confidence.

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Request for full transparency of MEP selection ballot

Following anecdotal reports of very high numbers of spoilt ballot papers Tim Montgomerie, Editor of ConservativeHome, has emailed John Maples MP, Returning Officer for the ballot, requesting full transparency:

"Dear John,

It was good to see you at last week's Mainstream meeting. I'm sorry we didn't get a proper chance to talk.

ConservativeHome has been publishing the rankings for MEP candidates today.

As the Returning Officer for the Elections I would be grateful if you could confirm that data for turnout and the number of spolit ballot papers will be published.  I've received reports of very high numbers of spoilt ballot papers.

Best wishes,

Tim"

We'll let you know when we get an answer.

5.30pm: Don't miss Charles Tannock MEP's comment below.

MEP selection results today

We'll be posting as they are announced - region by region as we understand it.

As well as the ranking results it will interesting to see levels of participation (turnout) and number of spoilt ballot papers - assuming CCHQ announce these.

2.10pm South East rankings:

1. Dan Hannan MEP
2. Richard Ashworth MEP
3. Nirj Deva MEP
4. James Elles MEP
5. Therese Coffey
6. Sarah Richardson
7. Richard Robinson
8. Tony Devenish
9. Nina Kaariniemi
10. Marc Brunel-Walker

2.50pm South West rankings:

1. Giles Chichester MEP
2. Julie Girling
3. Ashley Fox
4. Michael Dolley
5. Don Collier
6. Zehra Zaidi

2.50pm East Midlands rankings:

1. Roger Helmer MEP
2. Emma McClarkin
3. Rupert Matthews
4. Fiona Bulmer
5. George Lee

3pm Scotland rankings:

1. Struan Stevenson
2. Belinda Don
3. Helen Gardiner
4. Donald MacDonald
5. Gerald Michaluk
6. PJ Lewis

3.25pm West Midlands rankings:

1. Phil Bradbourn MEP
2. Malcolm Harbour MEP
3. Anthea McIntyre
4. Michael Burnett
5. Mark Spelman
6. Eveleigh Moore-Dutton
7. Dan Dalton

4.15pm Eastern rankings:

1. Geoffrey van Orden MEP
2. Robert Sturdy MEP
3. Vicky Ford
4. John Flack
5. Jonathan Morgan
6. Claire Strong
7. Claire Whelan

4.30pm Wales rankings:

1. Kay Swinburne
2. Evan Price
3. Emma Greenow
4. David Chipp

4.30pm London rankings:

1. Charles Tannock MEP
2. Syed Kamall MEP
3. Marina Yannakoudakis
4. Jean-Paul Floru
5. Warwick Lightfoot
6. Graham Postles
7. Alison Sproule
8. Ian Twinn

5.35pm North West rankings:

1. Rt Hon Sir Robert Atkins MEP
2. Den Dover MEP
3. Sajjad Karim MEP
4. Jacqueline Foster
5. Alex Williams
6. Peter Wilding
7. Gregory Morgan

5.35pm Yorkshire & Humber rankings:

1. Edward McMillan-Scott MEP
2. Timothy Kirkhope MEP
3. Fleur Butler
4. Matthew Bean
5. Nick Burrows
6. Glynis Frew

5.35pm North East rankings:

1. Martin Callanan MEP
2. Barbara Musgrave
3. Richard Bell