ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog

GoldList candidate: Danny Kruger

Next week we'll be focusing on candidates who achieved big swings to the Conservative Party at the last General Election.  This week we're focusing on journalists who would be Tory MPs.  We start with Danny Kruger, chief leader writer for The Daily Telegraph...

NAME... Danny Kruger.

WELL KNOWN FOR... Resigning as Conservative candidate for Tony Blair's seat of Sedgefield (where he had campaigned against the hunt ban) after provoking Michael Howard's wrath.  Danny had talked about Britain's public services needing a Schumpeterian "period of creative destruction”.   William Rees-Mogg was outraged at MH's wrath and explained why in The Times.

CONSERVATIVE PARTY HISTORY... Worked as a speechwriter for Iain Duncan Smith (for his last two months as Tory leader) and worked in CCHQ's Policy Unit from the beginning of 2004 until last year's General Election.  With IDS he authored 'Good for me, good for my neighbour - The Conservative way to social justice'.  Danny was an active supporter of the campaign for party members to keep their vote in the leadership election.

SPECIALIST AREAS... Public service reform.  Law and order.  Localisation (a leading author of the Direct Democracy agenda).

DID YOU KNOW...?  His mother is the celebrity cook, Prue Leith.

MAIN STRENGTHS...  Wordsmithery.  Intelligence.  Mastery of policy detail (he was also Director of Studies at the Centre for Policy Studies from 2001 to 2003). 

IDEAL CONSTITUENCY... Home counties marginal.

MORE INFORMATION... Three recent articles in The Daily Telegraph...

• Cameron must see Brown for the Scottish bourgeois he is;
• Mr Cameron, a whig in Tory clothes;
• Judas is innocent and hell is empty.

WOULD DANNY BE ON YOUR GOLDLIST?

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VOTING IN THIS SURVEY HAS NOW CLOSED.  213 VOTES WERE RECEIVED. 61% WERE IN FAVOUR OF DANNY KRUGER JOINING THE GOLDLIST. 36% WERE AGAINST. 4% DIDN'T KNOW.

NEXT NOMINEE: DANIEL FINKELSTEIN (WEDNESDAY).

GoldList candidate: Priti Patel

NAME... Priti Patel, 33.

WELL KNOWN FOR... Being a Press Secretary to William Hague from 1997 to 2000 and for regular media appearances for the Tory cause, notably on Radio 5.

CONSERVATIVE PARTY HISTORY... She joined the Party as a teenager and has worked for the Party nationally, in the Conservative Research Department, the Press Office at CCO and rose to become William Hague’s Deputy Press Secretary. She stood in the Nottingham North seat at the last election.  She is also a Chairman of her local Association.

SPECIALIST AREAS... Public and corporate relations.  Strong supporter of the Direct Democracy/ localisation agenda.

DID YOU KNOW...?  In August 2003 she told the FT: "I think there are racist undertones and attitudes. Racist attitudes do persist within the party . . . There's a lot of bigotry around."

MAIN STRENGTHS...  Straight-talking.  Grassroots commitment.

IDEAL CONSTITUENCY... Midlands.

MORE INFORMATION... No current website.

WOULD PRITI BE ON YOUR GOLDLIST?

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VOTING IN THIS SURVEY HAS NOW CLOSED.  226 VOTES WERE RECEIVED. 49% WERE IN FAVOUR OF PRITI PATEL JOINING THE GOLDLIST. 48% WERE AGAINST. 3% DIDN'T KNOW.

NEXT NOMINEE IN A WEEK OF NOMINATIONS OF JOURNALISTS: DANNY KRUGER (MONDAY)

GoldList candidate: Lee Rotherham

NAME... Dr Lee Rotherham (photo by David Wilkinson)

WELL KNOWN FOR... The high-profile Butler Campaign when he stood against Shaun Woodward in the 2001 General Election. Lately, he has hit the airwaves as co-author of the Bumper Book of Government Waste (about which he wrote this Platform post).

CONSERVATIVE PARTY HISTORY... Lee is a leading Conservative expert on anything to do with the EU. First involved in politics as the eyes and ears of Sir Richard Body and the Group of Eight rebels, then after the 1997 election was loaned out to successive Shadow Foreign Secretaries. He has been Campaign Secretary to the celebrated CAFE (currently dormant) since its launch, and was a key Eurosceptic mover and shaker in Brussels during the drafting of the EU Constitution. Dr Rotherham fought Denis Macshane in the 2005 election (Rotherham for Rotherham), and was on Liam Fox’s leadership team.

SPECIALIST AREAS... Defence (has done a six month tour in Iraq); heritage protection; deregulation; fraud and waste. His pamphlet on fisheries paved the way for current policy (the current status of which is unclear).

DID YOU KNOW...?  He is a fluent French speaker whose accent betrays a Montreal twang after a few pints. Rewrote one of the Bluffer’s Guides a few years back. Responsible for spotting the backdoor introduction of ID cards across departments under the Major Government: a Sunday Times front page spread killed the move.

MAIN STRENGTHS... Political consistency. Humour.

IDEAL CONSTITUENCY... East Midlands (where he has family ties).

MORE INFORMATION... No current website but plenty of published work on line. He writes a regular column for the European Journal, accessible here. See also the key paper here and his EPP post to the Platform of this site.

WOULD LEE BE ON YOUR GOLDLIST?

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VOTING IN THIS SURVEY HAS NOW CLOSED.  171 VOTES WERE RECEIVED. 57% WERE IN FAVOUR OF LEE ROTHERHAM JOINING THE GOLDLIST. 37% WERE AGAINST. 6% DIDN'T KNOW.

NEXT NOMINEE: PRITI PATEL

Thanks for all of your nominations

Thanks to all of you who have suggested folk for the GoldList.  I'm ploughing through the nominations and all will receive a reply in due course.  Please bear with me in the meantime.

Tim Montgomerie
Editor

GoldList candidate: Iain Dale

NAME... Iain Dale

WELL KNOWN FOR... Establishing the Politicos bookstore and publishing arm and for being one of Britain’s first bloggers.  Iain appeared regularly on Radio Five before he was selected as Conservative candidate for Norfolk North for the 2005 General Election.  He has become a regular political pundit on Sky News and News 24 in recent weeks.

CONSERVATIVE PARTY HISTORY... Iain was the first gay Conservative candidate to be selected having been open with the selection committee about his sexuality. Despite a vigorous local campaign unfortunately the Tory vote fell in North Norfolk by 6.3% and the LibDem MP's vote rose by over 10%.  A majority of 403 became a majority of 10,606.  After that disappointment Iain became Chief of Staff to the favourite candidate to succeed Michael Howard - one David Davis.  The rest, as they say, is history.

SPECIALIST AREAS... Conservative Party history (he helped found the Conservative History Group), home affairs and Thatcherism... Iain is an expert on Mrs T and Thatcherism.  The latest of his fourteen books is 'A Tribute in Words and Pictures' to Margaret Thatcher.

DID YOU KNOW...?  Iain is a big West Ham fan - holding a season ticket for Upton Park.  Stories of the Hammers appear constantly on his blog.

MAIN STRENGTHS... A successful businessman with an excellent media manner.

IDEAL CONSTITUENCY... Something in Kent (where he lives) or in London?

MORE INFORMATION... Personal blog.

WOULD IAIN BE ON YOUR GOLDLIST?

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VOTING IN THIS SURVEY HAS NOW CLOSED.  216 VOTES WERE RECEIVED. 48% WERE IN FAVOUR OF IAIN DALE JOINING THE GOLDLIST. 50% WERE AGAINST. 2% DIDN'T KNOW.

NEXT NOMINEE: LEE ROTHERHAM

Goldlist candidate: James Cleverly

NAME... James Cleverly

 

WELL KNOWN FOR... Fighting Lewisham East at the 2005 General Election and being the Conservative candidate for directly elected Mayor of Lewisham. Also for looking like Hugo Chavez and being a regular on this site (see here and here).

CONSERVATIVE PARTY HISTORY... Local government candidate in Lewisham in 2002, and 2004. Kept the Lib Dems in third place in Lewisham East with a 4.1% swing and an increased share of the vote. James spoke at the 2002 party conference on the role of the family in preventing crime and drug addiction, and the natural synergy between ethnic communities and the Conservative party.

 

During the 2005 election campaign James was called upon to defend the Conservative immigration policies, this included the Editor’s Forum at The Voice (Black newspaper), Sky News and a number of debates against opponents such as Simon Hughes MP, Dianne Abbott MP and Paul Beoteng.

 

SPECIALIST AREAS... Defence, community cohesion, family, the countryside.

 

DID YOU KNOW...? James has been an officer in the Territorial Army for over 15 years. Despite being from Lewisham James spent a year working in the highlands of Scotland as a hill walking guide and assisting in vermin control (shooting pigeons, rabbits and roe deer).

 

MAIN STRENGTHS... Strong public speaker and campaigner, diversity of experience.

IDEAL CONSTITUENCY... A London marginal.

MORE INFORMATION... Campaign webpage, Personal blog.

VOTING IN THIS SURVEY HAS NOW CLOSED.  135 VOTES WERE RECEIVED. 79% WERE IN FAVOUR OF JAMES CLEVERLY JOINING THE GOLDLIST. 19% WERE AGAINST. 3% DIDN'T KNOW.

GoldList candidate: Debi Jones

NAME… Debi Jones

WELL-KNOWN FOR…Radio Merseyside afternoon show, TV work ('Selly telly' in particular!), local work for various charities. She's known for being a "Mrs.Fix it" for local people's problems.

CONSERVATIVE PARTY HISTORY… She was Conservative candidate for Crosby (Merseyside) in 2005, and is standing in the local elections.

SPECIALIST AREAS… Debi formed a Conservative group to fight against the inappropriate siting of masts in her constituency. One of her public meetings was featured on Tonight with Trevor McDonald.

She also formed a borough branch of the CPRE (Campaign for the Protection of Rural England) of which she is Chair. She is the Vice-President of Aintree Hospital Trust League of Friends, and is part of a Health Scrutiny Committee ascertaining the perceived health risks of mobile phone masts in the area

DID YOU KNOW...? Her husband, Steve found her Labour opponent, Claire Curtis-Thomas's husband defacing her posters at 6.30am on the day of last year's General Election. The police interviewed him, and he was fined. She also jumped into the world's largest jelly in Southport for BBC Television's "Children in need"!

MAIN STRENGTHS… Approachability, high profile in Merseyside, engaging those not engaged in politics, hard-working campaigner.

IDEAL CONSTITUENCY… Crosby

MORE INFORMATION… Personal website.

WOULD DEBI BE ON YOUR GOLDLIST?

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VOTING IN THIS SURVEY HAS NOW CLOSED.  180 VOTES WERE RECEIVED. 59% WERE IN FAVOUR OF DEBI JONES JOINING THE GOLDLIST. 32% WERE AGAINST. 8% DIDN'T KNOW.

NEXT NOMINEE (MONDAY): JAMES CLEVERLY

GoldList candidate: Philippa Stroud

NAME… Philippa Stroud

WELL-KNOWN FOR… Directing the Centre for Social Justice.  Philippa Stroud has been involved with the CSJ since Iain Duncan Smith founded it in June 2004.  She is now directing its work.  Before joining the CSJ Philippa spent 17 years working full-time with disadvantaged people.   This included poverty-fighting work in Hong Kong; and in Bedford and then in Birmingham where she established projects for homeless people and those with addiction and debt problems.

CONSERVATIVE PARTY HISTORY… She belongs to Hammersmith and Fulham Conservatives and fought Clare Short (Birmingham Ladywood) at last year's General Election as part of the Conservative Party's City Seats Initiative.

SPECIALIST AREAS… Drugs, homelessness, poverty generally and project management.

DID YOU KNOW...? Philippa is married to a church minister, David, and is mother of three children.

MAIN STRENGTHS… Understanding of the nature of poverty and an ability to communicate in a non-political, non-partisan way.

IDEAL CONSTITUENCY… A London seat.

MORE INFORMATION… Centre for Social Justice website.

WOULD PHILIPPA BE ON YOUR GOLDLIST?

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VOTING IN THIS SURVEY HAS NOW CLOSED.  183 VOTES WERE RECEIVED.  81% WERE IN FAVOUR OF PHILIPPA STROUD JOINING THE GOLDLIST.  14% WERE AGAINST.  4% DIDN'T KNOW.

NEXT NOMINEE: DEBI JONES.  (PAUL OFFER'S NOMINATION WAS CANCELLED AS WE FOUND OUT THAT HE HAS ALREADY BEEN ADOPTED BY CHESTER).

GoldList candidate: Ray Lewis

NAME… Ray Lewis

WELL-KNOWN FOR… Running Eastside Young Leaders Academy (EYLA) – a project in Newham harnessing the leadership potential of black boys at risk of social exclusion. Rather than aspiring to become footballers or urban music stars, Ray encourages his charges to aim to succeed in fields such as law, investment banking and business. EYLA gives the boys the academic help, teamwork skills and self-discipline vital to do this. Ray resolved to do something to help black boys when, as governor of a young offenders institution, he saw the large numbers of black teenagers ending up in custody.

David Cameron chose to make his first official visit as Conservative leader to EYLA.

CONSERVATIVE PARTY HISTORY… Ray and EYLA have contributed to many events including the launch of A Fair Deal for Everyone and the inaugural Centre for Social Justice Awards. Although he has not been a Conservative Party activist, the success of EYLA is underpinned by Ray’s practising of small ‘c’ conservative values and principles. 

SPECIALIST AREAS… Education, youth justice

DID YOU KNOW… Eastside Young Leaders Academy was modelled on an academy in Louisiana after Ray saw it featured on Oprah.

MAIN STRENGTHS… Public service background, understanding of social problems, charisma and a great sense of humour. On his visit to EYLA, Ray praised Dave for “speaking just like a brother” for his ability to address audiences without notes.

IDEAL CONSTITUENCY… Ray is ideally suited to stand in one of the urban seats we need to win back from Labour. His selection would help overturn the perception that Conservatives are not interested in our great cities and that we don’t have any solutions to their entrenched problems.

MORE INFORMATION… EYLA, Dave gets East End leadership tips.

WOULD RAY BE ON YOUR GOLDLIST?

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VOTING IN THIS SURVEY HAS NOW CLOSED.  174 VOTES WERE RECEIVED.  80% WERE IN FAVOUR OF RAY LEWIS JOINING THE GOLDLIST.  17% WERE AGAINST.  3% DIDN'T KNOW.

GoldList candidate: Adrian Hilton

NAME… Adrian Hilton.

WELL-KNOWN FOR… Being one of four candidates axed by Michael Howard.  The other three were Howard Flight, Danny Kruger and Robert Oulds.  Mr Hilton was dropped from being parliamentary candidate for Slough at the 2005 General Election after writing an article in The Spectator that stated that "a Catholic EU will inevitably result in the subjugation of Britain's Protestant ethos to Roman Catholic social, political and religious teaching".  The Slough Conservative Association refused to deselect Mr Hilton and were then suspended en masse by CCHQ as a result.  Although the Catholic Herald accused Mr Hilton of being 'anti-papist' and a 'bigot' he was supported by Charles Moore, a Roman Catholic, who saw religious persecution in his deselection.

CONSERVATIVE PARTY HISTORY… Adrian has stood for local council and has been Deputy Chairman (Political) of his Conservative Association.

SPECIALIST AREAS… Theology, politics, philosophy (he teaches the last two at a grammar school) and Europe (he is the author of The Principality and Power of Europe).

DID YOU KNOW…? Adrian holds a World Record "for a non-stop recital of the Complete Works of Shakespeare, which took five days and nights without sleep".  Norris McWhiter, founder of the Guiness Book of Records, proclaimed AH's "astonishing feat of resilience and tenacity".

MAIN STRENGTHS… A teacher (how many of those do we have in the parliamentary party?), helps motivate people into politics (built a team of approximately 40 for Conservatives Direct) and lots of stamina (see immediately above).

IDEAL CONSTITUENCY… One out of reach of Michael Howard, with lots of Eurosceptics and a limited number of Catholic Herald readers.

MORE INFORMATION… AdrianHilton.com.

WOULD ADRIAN BE ON YOUR GOLDLIST?

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VOTING IN THIS SURVEY HAS NOW CLOSED.  328 VOTES WERE RECEIVED.  73% WERE IN FAVOUR OF ADRIAN HILTON JOINING THE GOLDLIST.  23% WERE AGAINST.  4% DIDN'T KNOW.

NEXT NOMINATION: RAY LEWIS

Goldlist candidate: Fiona Bruce

NAME... Fiona Bruce

WELL KNOWN FOR... Being selected as parliamentary candidate for Warrington South in the 2005 General Election by way of the first open primary held in this country - a public meeting of 300 local electors of all political persuasions. Fiona is a solicitor and runs a leading law firm in Warrington - Fiona Bruce & Co, which she founded over fifteen years ago.  In 2003 Fiona was the national winner of the Small Business Bureau's "Women into Business" Award.

CONSERVATIVE PARTY HISTORY... Elected as a councillor in a solidly Labour area, with a swing of over 8%, after knocking on almost every door of the ward. Held almost every office in her local constituency association over the last four years. Ran a feisty, widely-praised campaign for Warrington South at the 2005 General Election, with the majority of the incumbent Labour MP being more than halved in a difficult region for the party.  Unfortunately these gains have effectively been neutralised by recent boundary changes to the seat.

SPECIALIST AREAS...  Business, family, community.

DID YOU KNOW... Fiona was the councillor who referred Margaret Dixon to Michael Howard for help for an operation which had been delayed seven times - this led to Howard raising her case at PMQs and "the War of Margaret's Shoulder" ensued. The case highlighted that despite huge additional public funding for health, there had not been a proportionate improvement in public services under Labour.

MAIN STRENGTHS... Hardwork, team-building, initiative, organisational skills, sense of humour.

IDEAL CONSTITUENCY... A marginal seat in the North West, preferably held by Labour.

MORE INFORMATION... Fiona Bruce & Co, Pre-election interview.

WOULD FIONA BE ON YOUR GOLDLIST?

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VOTING IN THIS SURVEY HAS NOW CLOSED.  189 VOTES WERE RECEIVED.  82% WERE IN FAVOUR OF FIONA BRUCE JOINING THE GOLDLIST.  16% WERE AGAINST.  2% DIDN'T KNOW.

NEXT GOLDLIST NOMINEE: ADRIAN HILTON

GoldList candidate: Adam Rickitt

NAME... Adam Rickitt, born 1978.

WELL KNOWN FOR... Acting as Nick Tilsley in Coronation Street where he famously acted out the Street's first gay kiss scene and a brief career in pop music (you may remember his first single - "I Breathe Again"?).

CONSERVATIVE PARTY HISTORY... None known until he was accepted as a Conservative candidate in October 2005. CCHQ gave him a strong endorsement after appearing on Question Time last week:

"Everyone at HQ was hugely impressed by his confident and assured style. He is exactly the kind of young, dynamic character that David Cameron wants to promote as the face of the party."

He answered questions on religious freedom (he thought newspapers had a right to publish the offending Danish cartoons), Iraq (he thought it was important that British troops finish the job that had been begun) and the environment (he enthusiastically supported Cameron's green tactics and was sceptical about George W Bush breaking America's "oil addiction"). 

SPECIALIST AREAS... Unknown.

DID YOU KNOW...? Despite suffering from bulimia in his teenage years, Adam earned an academic scholarship to Sedbergh School in Cumbria, and was planning to do law at Cambridge before starting to model.

MAIN STRENGTHS... High profile nationwide, attractive, unstereotypical Conservative.

IDEAL CONSTITUENCY... One with a high proportion of Corrie devotees! He was brought up in the North West of England, particularly Manchester and Wirral.  If either of the Wintertons give up their seats (Macclesfield and Congleton) the selection of Mr Rickitt would certainly indicate a changed Tory party.

MORE INFORMATION... Personal webpage.

WOULD ADAM BE ON YOUR GOLDLIST?

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VOTING IN THIS SURVEY HAS NOW CLOSED.  151 VOTES WERE RECEIVED.  38% WERE IN FAVOUR OF ADAM RICKITT JOINING THE GOLDLIST.  57% WERE AGAINST.  5% DIDN'T KNOW.

THE NEXT GOLDLIST CANDIDATE WILL BE FIONA BRUCE (NOT THE NEWSREADER!).   IF YOU HAVE A CANDIDATE FOR THE GOLDLIST PLEASE EMAIL A SUGGESTION TO [email protected] (IDEALLY IN THE FORMAT ABOVE).