ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog

Five more seats selecting

One plum seat where Michael Jack MP is retiring: Fylde.

Four seats that have seen Tory candidates step down: Chorley, Colchester, Middlesbrough South + East Cleveland and Nuneaton.

The closing date for these applications is midday on Monday 15th September.

Scottish Tories select Maurice Golden for Glenrothes by-election

The text below is the official press release from the Scottish Conservatives.

"The Scottish Conservatives are pleased to announce that Maurice Golden has been selected as candidate for the Westminster parliamentary by-election in Glenrothes.

Conservative Party leader, David Cameron said:

“As Glasgow East showed, the Conservative message is relevant the length and breadth of our country. I will be campaigning and supporting Maurice on the streets of Glenrothes. He is a first class candidate bursting with energy and enthusiasm. I hope that Gordon Brown will rise to the challenge of campaigning in his own back yard so that the voters can see for themselves the choices on offer. It is time for him to stop running scared and to stand up and be counted. I will be in Glenrothes. Will he?”

Scottish Conservative leader, Annabel Goldie added:

“Only two people can become Prime Minister when the General Election comes, David Cameron or whoever is Labour leader. Only two Parties can form the next UK Government, a tired and dithering Labour Party or a fresh and invigorated Conservative Party. I look forward with relish to the coming weeks and working with Maurice to take our Conservative message of positive change to every voter in Glenrothes.”

Commenting on his selection, Maurice said:

“John MacDougall was a well respected Member of Parliament and his passing was a sad day for everyone involved in politics not only in Fife but throughout the Country.
 
”The people of Glenrothes face a clear choice in this Westminster by-election between Gordon Brown and a divided Labour Party and a rejuvenated Conservative Party under David Cameron and Annabel Goldie. A future Conservative Government can deliver for the people of Glenrothes, the people of Fife and the people of the United Kingdom.
 
”It is a pleasure and a privilege to be selected and I am fully committed to fighting this seat for the Conservative Party and delivering for the Constituency.”

ENDS

Notes:

Maurice is 28 years of age and lives in Newport-on-Tay in Fife. He is an Environmental Campaigns Manager for Keep Scotland Beautiful and firmly believes we must continue to reduce, re-use and recycle our waste.

Maurice joined the Conservative Party in 1997 and has previously served as Chairman of the Dundee University Students' Conservative and Unionist Association. In addition, Maurice was President of Conservative Future Scotland for three years.

At the 2007 Scottish Parliamentary Election Maurice was selected to fight the seat of Central Fife. He fought a positive campaign on local issues and increased the Conservative vote in the constituency. Maurice has also stood as a Local Government Candidate.

Outside of work, Maurice enjoys playing football, travelling and writing. He has lectured in 'Policing the early Nineteenth Century' and has produced Research Papers in the diverse fields of History and Environmental Law.

Maurice is a graduate of Dundee University.

Labour MP for Keighley Ann Cryer to step down at next election

Ann Cryer has represented the West Yorkshire seat since 1997. A leading campaigner on womens' issues, Cryer can claim some of the credit for the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act, which comes into force next month.

Cryer held the seat at the 2005 election with a majority of 4,852 over the Conservative candidate. The BNP Chairman Nick Griffin was also a candidate in 2005, and came fourth with 4,240 votes. The 4,800 majority may tempt Labour MPs in more dangerous territory to 'chicken run' to Keighley, but the Conservatives' Kris Hopkins can take the seat at the next election with a swing of just over 5%.

Zac Goldsmith spent £90,000 last year in battle to oust Susan Kramer

It's a small amount compared to the money spent in American elections but most Tory candidates would love to be able to match the £90,000 that Zac Goldsmith spent last year in his bid to become the Conservative MP for Richmond Park. Mr Goldsmith, who is thought to be worth £300m, was adopted as candidate in March 2007 and runs his own campaign office - separate from the local Association's office - and employs two members of staff.  Over the last year he has fought a high profile campaign against an attempt by Sainsbury's to build a new supermarket.

The scale of Mr Goldsmith's expenditure comes to light in this morning's FT because of a technical breach of Electoral Commission rules.  Mr Goldsmith was not on the electoral roll when he gave £7,000 to the Richmond Park Association.

'It's tough in a non-target seat'

Last week we reported that Jill Skalla was stepping down as our candidate in Colchester. In the thread of conmments generated by that news the comment reproduced below was left by a candidate in a non-target seat.  It's a comment, not a prepared article so isn't perfectly crafted.  Nonetheless it's very worth reading if you missed it at the time:

"The time and energy commitment required of me as a candidate did not come as a surprise: I expected it and meeting people and talking to them has been the best part of the job.

But the financial commitment is unexpectedly huge and almost ruinous: rent, bills and train fares have run into thousands already with not one single penny refunded. As a candidate in a non-target seat without an agent and without funds - all the funds from my seat were diverted to the target seat nearby- all I can do is talk to people. There is no money, there are no leaflets , so nothing to deliver. I have been warned off accepting help from people who have offered it, if they were also helping the target seat. I have been told if I win and he doesn't I am in trouble!

After a brief period of shocked paralysis I decided to just carry on talking to people and this is what I do, though I have just taken a few weeks off for the huge blisters on my feet (from tramping around the seat) to heal. The Association believed from the outset that the seat was unwinnable (it isn't) and so are loath to do anything at all. Appallingly inappropriate remarks were made by the outgoing agent about my age, and about the fact that the candidate here could be anyone at all as it was so hopeless! Members fees from my constituency have been diverted to help the nearby target seat too, even though it is receiving Ashcroft money.

This sounds pretty bad, but to be honest, I don't care. I get such good feedback from people on the doorstep and on the phone(with raw feet I reverted to the telephone)that I don't feel unsupported. I AM supported by all the people I meet, even though it is supposed to be a Labour seat. But now what was a large Labour majority is predicted to be in the region of just 3%.

Scottish Labour MP John MacDougall has died after a long illness

The BBC has more.

Mr MacDougall held the seat of Glenrothes, which neighbours Gordon Brown's, at the last General Election with a majority of nearly 11,000.

Our consolations to his family.

10.30am:

"Speaking after the sad death of John MacDougall MP was announced, David Mundell MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, said:

"John was a kind and decent man who dedicated to the service of the people of Fife, with distinguished service both in Parliament and local government. I have greatly admired the way in which he has borne such a debilitating illness with enormous courage. My thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time.""

Robert McIlveen on the City Seats Initiative

Robert McIlveen is on the approved list of candidates and a part of the CSI in Sheffield. He is at the end of writing his PhD on Conservative Party strategy.  In this post he asks if CSI stands for "Crap System Imposed or Cities Selecting Innovatively"?

The City Seats Initiative (CSI) has been getting a bit of stick on ConHome lately (here and here). As part of my PhD I did some analysis of the CSI in 2006, which forms a chapter of my PhD. I am also now one of the likely candidates in the Sheffield CSI, giving me a practical as well as academic interest in it.

For those who don’t take an obsessive interest in Conservative candidate selection processes, the CSI is a project whereby candidates for the cities taking part are selected as a team and allocated to constituencies later on. The reasons are varied – it is much nicer fighting a “challenging” seat with other people around you going through the same thing. The weakest constituencies never had particularly competitive selections either – two or three applicants, with the candidate selected by a similar number of members is hardly ideal. The CSI is partly to do with hopes of rejuvenating the party in the cities, which in some cases are extremely weak.

My research, an earlier version of which is available here, tested whether the CSI had any effect in the cities it was used in at the last election (Birmingham, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and Sunderland).

The most effective aspect of the CSI was with regard to candidates. The CSI seats had more women than comparable seats, and these women did particularly well in getting onto the A-list and getting selected for winnable or safe seats. Given that it was run from the candidates department it is not all that surprising. The associations were impressed with the quality of the candidates overall, suggesting that those sent up were good, promising future prospects for the party.

Iain Dale meets Simon Jones, the Tory seeking to unseat Jon Cruddas

Chris Bustin selected for Dundee East

Chris Bustin was adopted for Dundee East on Friday. Local Dundee man, Mr Bustin contested the Dundee East seat at the 2005 General Election and last year's Scottish Parliamentary elections.  The Conservatives won 13% of the vote in 2005.  The seat is held by the SNP with Labour in second place.

"We're here, we're queer and we're going to vote Conservative!"

Last Saturday Brighton Conservatives had their own float for the town's Gay Pride celebration.  The float was covered with pink union flags and with people wearing 'I've come out... I'm a Tory' t-shirts.  In the centre of the photograph below is David Bull, the Tory candidate for Brighton Pavillion.

Anastasia Beaumont-Bott was part of the float and wrote this report for LGBTory:

"Today we took part in David Bulls float on the gay pride parade which was just incredible. We had 20 LGBT Conservatives on the float wearing a mixture of Davids "I've come out... I'm a tory!" vests and our LGBTory branded tshirts with our colourful rainbow logo across the chest. The music was blaring, the crowd were screaming their approval, and with a slight lurch the float full of euphoric LGBT Conservatives screaming "We're here, we're queer and we're going to vote Conservative!" made it's way around Brighton. It was just fantastic. Unlike Pride London where we were able to walk with Boris Johnson at the front of the parade as part of his support group, here we were very much out there on our own - but it didn't hinder us. The thing about LGBTory is you've got to say it loud and proud. We know we're up against a mountain of stumblnig blocks with the LGBT community and we don't blame them one bit. But what makes it worth while is going to places like Brighton today and seeing that despite the past, despite moments when perhaps they had every right to hate our guts, the LGBT community are open to listening to our message. LGBTory isn't about defining people by their sexuality. Infact, quite the opposite. We are about defining people by a concrete hard wall against homohobia. We don't stand for it in the workplace and like hell will we stand for it in politics. We are inclusive of all because the battle against homophobia has to come from ALL - gay and straight; perhaps that's why the LGBT communities are willing to at least hear us out."

Jill Skalla steps down as Colchester candidate

The Colchester Gazette is reporting that Jill Skalla (website) has quit as the Conservative candidate for Colchester.

The article cites "work and family responsibilities".

Jill Skalla was selected fifteen months ago to overturn a LibDem majority of nearly 6,000.

Last month Simon Rouse stood down as candidate for Nuneaton.

Watford's ex-Tory candidate pleads guilty to charges of criminal damage and harassment

This has just appeared on the BBC:

"A former Conservative general election candidate has pleaded guilty to a campaign of harassment against his Liberal Democrat rivals.

Ian Oakley, who stood down as the Tory candidate in Watford last month, admitted five charges of criminal damage and two of harassment.

Oakley, of Ryeland Close, West Drayton, Middlesex, appeared at St Albans Magistrates' Court.
The 31-year-old asked for 68 other offences to be taken into account."

The Metro has this:

"A former Tory parliamentary candidate has pleaded guilty to daubing a rival's house with 'perv' graffiti and sending gay and lesbian magazines to another opponent.

A court today heard former Watford prospective parliamentary candidate Ian Oakley, 31, had damaged property belonging to the Liberal Democrats and had harassed rivals Sal Brinton and Russell Wilson.

He slashed tyres and wrecked shutters at the Liberal Democrat headquarters in Watford.

He sent gay and lesbian magazines to Ms Brinton and made silent phone calls to her between August 2006 and March this year, the court heard. Letters addressed to "Sal Bitchton" were also sent to her workplace."

Shocking stuff.  Mr Oakley stepped down on 19th July when Sunday newspapers were about to break the story that he was facing police charges.

2pm: Daniel Finkelstein blogs about his own (small) role in Ian Oakley's rise and fall

2.15pm: The LibDems have called for David Cameron to investigate the whole episode.

Three candidates adopted for City Seats Initiative in Bromwich

Andrew Hardie, Jas Parmar and Alistair Thompson have been adopted for the three Bromwich seats - Warley, West Bromwich East and West Bromwich West - as part of the City Seats Initiative. Congratulations to all three.