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Hereford is yet another example of a Conservative Association choosing an Open primary selection process to avoid having to draw up a 'half-women shortlist'. The finalist candidates, according to the Hereford Times, are:
Labour will have a 1,134 majority over the LibDems at the next General Election with Conservatives in third place.
The new Deputy Chairman (Candidates) wrote personally topped and tailed letters to all candidates last week. The text of the letter is below:
"I am delighted to have taken over responsibility for candidates and hope to build on the excellent work done by Bernard Jenkin.
I know that those of you who are not on the Priority List feel very frustrated. I want to reassure you that we do top up the Priority List from time to time, so don't despair. Also, there will be seat selections which we will open up to the whole list later and that will give you a good chance of finding a seat to fight at the election.
We will also be selecting teams of candidates for the City Seats Initiative early next year.
If there is anything extra you would like us to take into account in topping up the Priority List, please email it to [deleted for security] and we will make sure it is placed on your file and shown to those deciding on the top up.
I hope that you will understand that I cannot correspond with you all directly, but I do look forward to meeting as many of you as possible at the Candidates Conference in December.
With best wishes..."
Bournemouth councillor Nick King has been adopted for the LibDem seat of Mid Dorset and North Poole. Nick is also a blogger - recording local issues in an informative and down-to-earth way. He has blogged his own selection here. Annette Brooke, the current LibDem MP, will defend a projected majority of 5,270 at the next General Election.
As ConservativeHome commentator 'C List and Proud' noted on Tuesday, Priti Patel's Witham victory owed a great deal to her traditionalist views on crime and Europe. The following quotations appear in this morning's Mail on Sunday:
PP on crime: "If you had the ultimate punishment for the murder of policemen and other heinous crimes, I am sure it would act as a deterrent. We must send a clear signal to people that crime doesn't pay. The punishment must fit the crime and yes, I do support capital punishment. For far too long the law has been on the side of the criminal. Law and order is breaking down in Britain and we must do something about it."
PP on the euro: "I said I would never vote for the euro because I want to see a Britain that is governed by the British for the British."
PP on Project Cameron: "David Cameron is not doing enough to carry party members with him in terms of his style and approach. He has broadened the appeal of the party but he must do more to reassure members and we need to develop more policies."
A party official told The MoS that Priti Patel's main rival for Witham - James Brokenshire MP - was "slick" and "too clever by qualifying every statement".
12.30pm update: Just noticed this in the MoS leader column: "Ms Patel turns out to be the very thing the Tory leader wants to get rid of, a hardline Conservative who loathes the EU and wants to bring back the death penalty. Good for her. Like Archbishop John Sentamu and Bishop Michael Nazir Ali, she is free to be politically incorrect because nobody can call her a racist or a fascist."
Local candidate Cllr Kevin Foster was adopted yesterday evening for the seat of Coventry South (projected Labour majority 6,552 with boundary changes).
Sunday 26th update: At just 27 he is one of the youngest candidates to be selected so far. Kevin is also the Cabinet Member for City Services on the local Council. The shortlist of four included two other City Cllrs (Hazel Noonan & Gary Ridley) as well as one A-lister, Samantha George from Merton but Kevin won more than 50% of votes in the first round. Although the majority looks large the party has made big progress at a local council level in recent years and all but four of the constituency's councillors are now Tory.
Openly gay Leeds councillor Stuart Andrew has been selected by open primary for the Labour-held seat of Pudsey. Cllr Andrew beat another local, non A-lister Jason McCartney at a meeting attended by a little over 100 people - half of which are reported to be non-members. Cllr Andrew, a fundraiser for a children's hospice, will need to overturn Paul Truswell's 4,751 projected majority at the next election.
GLA member and local councillor Bob Blackman has emerged from what appears to have been quite an acromonious selection process as the victor at an open primary election yesterday evening for the seat of Harrow East. He beat Alan Mendoza and Mimi Harker.
Overnight ConservativeHome has updated its rolling record of selected candidates. The list hadn't been updated since 2nd November - since when sixteen candidates have been selected:
Saturday 9th December will see many candidates gather together at Westminster Central Hall. John Maples MP - the new head of candidates at CCHQ - will be there all day. He, Shireen Ritchie and Gareth Fox will run 'career surgeries' throughout the day for individual candidates. Head of party policy Oliver Letwin, Chairman Francis Maude, Theresa May, CCHQ campaigns director George Bridges and Friends of the Earth's Tony Juniper will all give policy/ strategy presentations. It is the first serious attempt since the introduction of the A-list for all candidates to receive a full briefing on party and candidate issues. Credit must go to David Senior and Mary Macleod of the Candidates' Association for organising it. A pdf leaflet for the conference can be downloaded here.
Vale of York MP Anne McIntosh has emerged as the surprise victor over Ryedale MP John Greenway in the selection battle for the new seat of Thirsk and Malton. Ryedale forms over half of the new seat and Mr Greenway had been expected to win the battle. Ms McIntosh's own seat will be broken up into six parts.
Anne McIntosh had been unsuccessfully applying for other seats around Britain and now will inherit a seat with a projected majority of 14,687. The former MEP may have been boosted in local members' minds by recently receiving a frontbench job - shadow minister for family welfare - from David Cameron.
Mr Greenway was apparently the victim of a strong faction within the Ryedale Association who had hoped to see him achieve shadow cabinet rank and by some anger that he not secure dual carriageway status for a major road in the constituency - quite a tall order for an opposition backbencher.
The other MP with an abolished seat - James Brokenshire - was also given promotion by David Cameron in the recent reshuffle. He'll learn whether he'll be adopted for the plum Tory seat of Witham tomorrow when he faces Charles Elphicke, Priti Patel and Geoffrey Van Orden in an open primary election (in which the new CCHQ requirement of half-women shortlists is waived).
BBC Online is reporting that David Cameron is 'shunning' James Gray as he faces the real risk of deselection (see London Evening Standard). Some local Tories are furious that the North Wiltshire MP was unfaithful to his wife whilst she was being treated for breast cancer. The Association Executive has voted for his deselection but that vote will have to be ratified by a postal vote of all members. If Mr Gray does lose his fight he will have paid a heavy price for choosing to divorce his wife and a race will begin to become the Tory candidate for a seat with a 7,500+ majority (once boundary changes are taken into account).
My guess is that the BBC is overinterpreting David Cameron's decision to stay neutral in this contest. 'Shunning' is not the right word. Mr Gray's (latest) mistake was to overstate Mr Cameron's position:
"I have the very strong support of David Cameron. I was his campaign leader here in the west country during his leadership battle. He's a close friend of mine. I was a special adviser with him many years ago. He, the chief whip, and the chairman of the party have all said they strongly support my position as member of parliament and I hope the members here locally accept that."
Traditionally CCHQ has remained publicly neutral in such cases but often makes behind-the-scenes calls to Association officers. Such was the case when Castle Point MP Bob Spink faced deselection problems a few years ago.
A leading possible contender for the seat would be A-lister and former head of the Conservative Research Department John Glen who was brought up in the area. Local councillor Ellie Bland lost her chance because of the recent furore over a 'racist email'.
Mr Gray was the shortest-serving Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland after he suggested MSPs should be abolished. One week after he had been appointed to his position he was forced to resign.
A-lister and local resident Deborah Dunleavy (Bolton South PPC 2005) was selected over two previous PPCs for the NE seat (Cllr Paul Brierley from 2005 and Michael Winstanley from 2001).
Labour's David Crausby has a majority of over 4000.
Deputy Editor
Saturday 18th update: This from The Bolton News.
November 2007: Deborah's website.
More here. Many congratulations to Philip - a local man with enormous integrity.
Commiserations to Hannah - I hope a constituency selects you soon. You'll be a terrific MP.
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