In one of the most direct attacks on the A-list since John Hayes MP questioned its membership, Edward Leigh MP (another Cornerstoner) has written to this morning's Telegraph and complained about the failure of A-listers to apply for northern seats. This is the full text of his letter:
"Sir – It has come to my attention that a number of key northern marginal seats are receiving very few applications from the "A-list" of Conservative candidates. Sometimes total applications are down to single figures. In some cases, only one or two men are applying for seats on which the fate of the country will turn.
You might think it a disaster that so few have applied. In fact, hundreds of people on the "Approved" list have been prevented from applying, in large part because they are the wrong sex.
This is blighting careers, discouraging activists and is contrary to natural justice. It cannot be right that talented people are excluded from Parliament in this way. We need them for government.
The Conservative Party is nothing if it is not about allowing people to rise up irrespective of race, creed or gender. Are we now the party of arbitrary quotas to exclude white, Christian, heterosexual men because, for all their abilities, they are just that?
Incidentally, could it be that the few men who get on the A-list think themselves so brilliant that they are above standing for a northern marginal, especially as so many of them come from London's political elite?
The obvious solution is now to open the A-list to all according to ability and nothing else. I rather thought this was Conservatism in action."
Mr Leigh's letter is the most outspoken attack on the A-list so far from a Tory MP. His opinion will strike a chord with the 94% of Tory members who do not believe that the 'Priority List' candidates are necessarily the most talented candidates.
In the last week CCHQ have added approximately twenty names to the A-list in a bid to address the 'applications deficit' that Mr Leigh's letter highlights. In due course ConservativeHome will attempt to identify that twenty.
