ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog

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 [email protected].  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.