ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog

Rachel Joyce selected for Harrow West

Rachel Joyce, an NHS doctor, was selected for Harrow West last night.

The constituency has seen some significant boundary changes in Labour's favour, who now have a notional majority of almost 8000.

Deputy Editor

Tory MEP David Sumberg (North West) has announced he will stand down

In case you missed it... MEP selection is a bit of a controversial issue.

David Sumberg's website is here.

Philip Allott selected for Halifax

Philip Allott was selected last night for Halifax - projected Labour majority of 3,438.

11am update: This from the Halifax Courier:

"TORY CANDIDATE CHOSEN
 
THE Conservatives have chosen a former mayor of Knaresborough to fight the Halifax Parliamentary seat at the next General Election.

Philip Allott, a law graduate, runs his own marketing business and lives in Knaresborough, where he was on the town council for nine years and leader of Harrogate District Council.

He was chosen as a Calderdale prospective Parliamentary candidate at a special meeting of the Halifax Conservative Association last night.

The open hustings-style event at the Tower House Hotel, Pye Nest, was attended by about 40 people which pitched Mr Allott against Lucille Nicholson, a self employed property developer, who lives at Chester-le-Street, County Durham.

Mr Allott and his wife, Sandra, have two children.

He was a candidate for Brent North in the 2001 General Election and came a close second to Labour's Ruth Kelly in Bolton West in 2005.

He told the meeting that he would immerse himself in the job and come to live in Halifax.

"I am not a complete outsider. As a youngster, I helped my father who brought racing donkeys to Halifax which raised thousands of pounds for local charities.

"I come to Halifax with a fresh pair of eyes not locked into local problems and issues of the past," he said.""

David Cameron in Ealing Southall

WebCameron video of Cameron walking the streets of Ealing Southall yesterday flanked by candidate Tony Lit and an army of poster waving supporters:

Graham Robb selected for Sedgefield

Earlier today we covered the selection of Tony Lit as our Ealing Southall candidate.  We have just learnt that Graham Robb has been selected as our candidate for the Sedgefield by-election.  The official website isn't yet live but Graham has a profile on MySpace.

Please sign up for Campaign Together if you haven't already done so.

Campaign Together

You may remember we linked to a CampaignTogether.com in the newslinks a month or so ago, it's a very useful tool for informing Conservative activists about local by-elections happening near them.

The Party has been fine-tuning it for a long time and following Piara Khabra's funeral yesterday it is now in full by-election mode for Ealing Southall and Sedgefield.

You can sign up for its newsletter here, or even better apply to be a member of its Volunteer Taskforce and get full access to the website.

Deputy Editor

Asian radio entrepreneur to be Ealing Southall candidate

Tony Lit, Managing Director of Sunrise Radio, has been chosen from a large number of hopeful candidates to stand for the Conservatives in the by-election (held on July 19th). A local family man who was educated at a state school, he has had no previous involvement in the Party but is said to be joining because of David Cameron.

The constituency as a whole has the second largest Asian community in the country, mostly concentrated in the Southall half of the constituency where one of the wards is 97% non-white (and where the LibDems are basing their new HQ).

Lit's wealthy and influential father stood in 2001 as a "Sunrise" candidate and managed to beat the LibDems into fourth, so hopefully his son will bring a similar following with him! Another factor in his favour is that Sedgefield's by-election will stretch LibDem resources more than ours.

CCHQ see his candidacy as quite a coup. The constituency's new campaign HQ is hoping for as much mutual aid from other constituencies as possible. We'll post details of how you can sign up to help later today. Go to CampaignTogether.com to sign up for helping out in all sorts of ways. Your Party needs you.

Friday 12 pm update: Just to be clear, Tony did become a member of the Party before passing the Parliamentary Assessment Board. He has always voted Conservative but couldn't join the Party earlier due to his directorship of the radio station, a position which he has duly resigned from. Also, much credit is due to Grant Shapps MP for getting Campaign Together off the ground.

Deputy Editor

ConservativeHome Seats & Candidates' downloadable database 2.0

In January we published a database of Seats & Candidates compiled for ConservativeHome by Rory Malone, an activist in Westminster North.

Here is the new, improved and updated version:

Download seats_and_candidates_database_June.xls

It includes lists of constituency selections, broken down into graphs and tables showing the proportion of A-listers and women being selected so far, and now a table listing seats and their candidates in target order. Please feel free to send him any corrections and additions.

I'm sure many of you will find it useful, and will be thankful for the time Rory has put into this. We will publish a detailed analysis later of how winnable seats being fought by female candidates are compared to those of male candidates. 

Deputy Editor

In January we published a database of Seats & Candidates compiled for ConservativeHome by Rory Malone, an activist in Westminster North.

Here is the new, improved and updated version:

Download seats_and_candidates_database_June.xls

It includes lists of constituency selections, broken down into graphs and tables showing the proportion of A-listers and women being selected so far, and now a table listing seats and their candidates in target order. Please feel free to send him any corrections and additions.

I'm sure many of you will find it useful, and will be thankful for the time Rory has put into this. We will publish a detailed analysis later of how winnable seats being fought by female candidates are compared to those of male candidates. 

Deputy Editor

Hendon open primary

Cllr Matthew Offord, Bob Seely, Rebecca Harris and Sheila Lawlor are going through to the open primary on July 10th. Labour's Andrew Dismore has just a 2699 majority.

Deputy Editor

Finalists for West Lancashire open primary

Champion Newspapers identifies the four finalists for the West Lancashire seat (projected Labour majority of 6,084):

• "Alf Doran, a Sefton councillor and West Lancs Tory candidate at the 2005 general election;
• Veronica Horman, who is a one time maths teacher and now Cheshire council legal officer;
• Thelma Matuk, who is an accountant who fought Eccles in the 2005 general election; and
• Adrian Owens, an Ormskirk cllr and finance portfolio holder for West Lancs District Council."

Alf Doran has also been linked to Chorley and Southport.

The open primary will take place on Friday 6th July.  Locals wanting to attend should call 01695 572306 or email [email protected] with their address and phone number.

Rochester & Strood postponement

The selection for this seat, announced in the early May tranche, has had to be delayed indefinitely in order to resolve "a number of issues".

Deputy Editor

Dewsbury open primary

Kevin Hollinrake and Karen Woods were selected from the shortlist to go through to the open primary on July 6th.

Deputy Editor

Alexander Ellis selected for GLA North East

Alexander Ellis has been selected to be the London NE Assembly candidate (incorporating the boroughs of Islington, Hackney and Waltham Forest). Atiq Malik, Dr Ellie Hopkins and David Vaini were the runners up.

Deputy Editor

Three selections we have missed

1. Will Gallagher for Alyn and Deeside - projected Labour majority of 8,378
2. Felicity Elphick for Wrexham - projected Labour majority of 6,819
3. Alex Story for Wakefield - projected Labour majority of 6,537

Monday (25th) update: Dick Wishart was right. We've been in touch with the Welsh Press Office and the two Welsh selections mentioned were actually those for last month's Assembly elections. We apologise for any confusion - the information was taken from the Party's website, which has now been amended.

Charlie Elphicke selected for Dover

Charles Elphicke (a regular contributor to YourPlatform) has been selected today for Dover.  Good luck to Charlie in overturning a projected Labour majority of 5,061.

Zac wins Sainsbury's referendum

A few weeks ago ConservativeHome covered Zac Goldsmith's idea of holding a referendum to oppose the construction of a new Sainsbury's supermarket in Barnes.  The results are now in:

"7,721 people who were polled, 4,756 responded (61.6% - so higher than the General Election average). Of those, 7 were blank, 687 voted in favour of the store (14.5%) and 4062 (85.5%) voted against."

Zac has greeted the result with enthusiasm:

"This is an outstanding and decisive result by any standard, and we hope and believe Sainsbury¹s will now listen. If Sainsbury's wants to preserve its image as a socially responsible company, it needs to yield to the clearly expressed wishes of the people of Barnes.  But if it chooses to ignore this overwhelming result, then we will take the campaign to a new level. The people have spoken and we will do whatever it takes to ensure they are listened to."

Sainsbury's decided to take part in the process by circulating the attached letter (click to enlarge).

John Gough selected for Barrow & Furness

Unusually for a non-local he won an open primary. Previous post.

Deputy Editor

Finalists for Barrow and Furness

Ollie Flitcroft (local councillor), John Gough, Thelma Matuk and Mary Robinson are the open primary finalists for the Labour-held seat of Barrow and Furness (projected Labour majority of 4,836).  The primary will take place at 6pm on Wednesday 20th June.

Election boundaries almost official

The Privy Council confirmed the new Parliamentary boundaries last night, with effect from a week on Wednesday.

This basically means that candidates in constituencies with new boundaries can be assured that the next General Election will without question be fought on those new boundaries, although by-elections until that time will be on the old boundaries.

In other news, UK Polling Report has a new-look seats guide.

Deputy Editor

Nigel Mills selected for Amber Valley

Amber Valley (notional Labour majority of 6068) selected Nigel Mills yesterday, a member of Amber Valley District Council.

Deputy Editor

Louise Bagshawe on being a PPC

Louise, a bestselling novelist in her former life, describes her experience of being the Conservative candidate for Corby since she was selected eight months ago.

Tough. Tiring. And thrilling. I think that’s it in a nutshell.

I was selected for Corby & East Northamptonshire by open primary in October last year, and got to work at once. With my area campaign director and regional director (Simon Eardley and David Surtees, both of whom know the seat and its politics inside out) we conducted an audit. It was a bit daunting, as a new candidate, to be summoned to Francis Maude’s office to give him an overview of the seat. I’m afraid I spent my thirty minutes barraging him with an endless list of requests. To his credit, he was undaunted. Including at the moment I idly picked up his Blackberry and looked at the front of the screen, thinking “What? I don’t have an appointment with Theresa May at three!” (Mine was a new phone and looked identical. Sorry Francis).

Welsh tranche of seats

Six of the more promising Welsh seats are now open for applications:

Cardiff North (Labour incumbent - 1146 majority)
Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire (Lab - 2063)
Gower (Lab - 6703)
Montgomeryshire (Lib - 7020)
Vale of Clwyd (4726)
Ynys Mon (1242)

Candidates have until Monday 18th June to send their CVs in.

Deputy Editor

Gillingham & Rainham candidates

Tariq Ahmad, Edward Argar, James Brokenshire, Rehman Chishti, Tim Collins, Flick Drummond, Vicky Ford, Mimi Harker, Maria Hutchings, Julie Rook, Elizabeth Truss and Martin Winter have all gone through to the next stage of selection.

It's a sought after seat because UK Polling Report gives it a notional majority of 500 (although Rallings & Thrasher mark it as Labour), and it is a commutable distance to London.

Deputy Editor