ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog

Nick Varley selected for City of Durham

19-year-old Nick Varley, who was selected yesterday to contest City of Durham at the general election, becomes, I believe, the youngest ever Conservative candidate to be standing for a parliamentary seat at Westminster.

Nick grew up in nearby Chester-Le-Sreet and has lived in the constituency itself for the last couple of years. He is a second year law student at the University of Hull.

The seat, unaffected by boundary changes, is held for Labour by first-term MP Roberta Blackman-Woods, who has a majority of 3,274 over the second-placed Liberal Democrats. The Conservatives are in third place with 9.4 per cent of the vote and Nick would require a swing of over 30 per cent to win the constituency.

The seat last had a Consevative MP in 1922.

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December 1st update

Party chairman, Caroline Spelman, has hailed Nick's selection:

"I am delighted Nick has been selected for the City of Durham and congratulate him on becoming the Conservative's youngest candidate. At 19 Nick is the youngest candidate our party has ever selected to stand for Parliament.

“I am sure he will bring a fresh perspective to tackling the issues of the day in Durham and do an excellent job of holding this Labour Government to account, when Brown finally has the confidence to call a much need General Election. I wish Nick the best of luck in his campaign."

Christian Holliday selected for Swansea East

Christian Holliday has been selected to contest Swansea East at the next general election. He is a planning consultant who was born and bred in Swansea and attended Swansea University - during which time he was treasurer of Swansea Conservative Future and then deputy chairman of Swansea East Conservative Association itself. More recently, Christian served as a member of Lord Heseltine’s Cities Taskforce.

The seat, unaffected by boundary changes, is held for Labour by first-term MP Sian James, who currently enjoys a majority of 11,249 over the Liberal Democrats. The Conservatives are in third place with a little over ten per cent of the vote and Christian would require a swing of over 23 per cent to win the constituency - which as far as I can tell has never had a Conservative MP.

Caroline Johnson adopted for Scunthorpe

Dr Caroline Johnson, a Paediatrician, was selected yesterday evening as the Parliamentary Candidate for Scunthorpe.  Scunthorpe has a projected Labour majority of 8,510.

Angela Jones-Evans selected for Cardiff West

Angela Jones-Evans was selected on Tuesday night to contest Cardiff West at the next general election. Currently the director of a research and training consultancy, she has previously held a series of positions at a number of universities, including being Deputy Regional Director of the Open University in Wales and Head of Information Support Services at Bangor University,

The is currently held for Labour by Cabinet Officer minister Kevin Brennan and after minor boundary changes he is projected to go into the next election defending a notional majority of 8,361, according to the calculations of Professors Rallings and Thrasher of the University of Plymouth. Angela would require a swing of a little over 11% to unseat him.

Cardiff West, under slghtly different boundaries, was last held by the Conservatives between 1983 and 1987.

More than half of Welsh Constituency Conservative Associations have now adopted candidates for the next General Election.

Spencer Drury selected for Greenwich and Woolwich

Spencer Drury has been adopted as candidate for Greenwich and Woolwich at the next general election. A member of Greenwich council since 2002, he leads the borough's Conservative group and is an economics teacher by profession. He contested Eltham in 2005.

The seat is currently held for Labour by Nick Raynsford and after minor boundary changes he is projected to go into the next election defending a notional majority of 11,638, according to the calculations of Professors Rallings and Thrasher of the University of Plymouth. Spencer would need to overtake the Liberal Democats and attain a swing from Labour of 17.45% to take the seat.

It is one of a clutch of eleven south London seats which has been selecting in recent months.

Melanie Hampton selected for Mitcham and Morden

Melanie Hampton, a vice-chairman of Tooting Conservative Association, has been selected to fight the neighbouring constituency of Mitcham and Morden at the next general election. She runs her own insurance broking business and is a governor of two schools.

The seat has been held since 1997 by Siobhain McDonagh for Labour and after minor boundary changes she is projected to go into the next election defending a notional majority of 12,739, according to the calculations of Professors Rallings and Thrasher of the University of Plymouth. Melanie will require a swing of a little over 16 per cent to take the seat, which was held between 1982 and 1997 by Dame Angela Rumbold for the Conservatives.

It is one of a clutch of eleven south London seats which has been selecting in recent months.

Paul Campbell adopted for Warrington North

Local councillor Paul Campbell has been adopted to fight Warrington North and overturn a projected Labour majority of 10,657.

Paul Bristow selected for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland

Paul Bristow, currently a Hammersmith councillor, was adopted yesterday evening for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland.

He faces a projected Labour majority of 8,061.

Paul succeeds Julie Moody, who stepped down as Tory candidate for personal reasons.

Barry Flux adopted for Blyth Valley

The Conservatives are in third place in a seat with a projected Labour majority of 8,527.

David Skelton adopted for Durham North

The Conservatives are in third place in this seat held by Labour with a projected majority of 16,781.

Robert Jenrick adopted for Newcastle-under-Lyme

26 year old Robert Jenrick has been adopted for Newcastle-under-Lyme.  The Labour held seat has a projected majority over the Conservatives of just over 8,000.

Recent run of male selections disappoints CCHQ

Although fifty to sixty Tory MPs are likely to be women in the event of a General Election victory, 85% of the last six months of selections have been of men.  More significantly, Saturday's adoption of another man - Hexham choosing Guy Opperman - follows a succession of other male adoptions in Tory-held or top target seats: Fylde choosing Mark Menzies, Nuneaton adopting Marcus Jones, Bournemouth West adopting Conor Burns, Perth and North Perthshire adopting Peter Lyburn, Halesowen and Rowley Regis adopting James Morris, Rochester and Strood re-adopting Mark Reckless, Westmorland & Lonsdale adopting Gareth McKeever.

The last woman to be selected in a top seat was Rebecca Harris for Castle Point at the start of July - a few days after James Brokenshire won the race for Old Bexley & Sidcup.

The Candidates' Department had hoped that intensive lobbying of Association Chairmen and compulsory shortlisting of women would have produced greater change. The Dept is reportedly disappointed because they do not believe that further/ tougher pro-women measures would be acceptable to Associations.

Guy Opperman adopted for Hexham

Congratulations to Guy Opperman: "Guy Opperman is a barrister and published writer and rides as an amateur steeplechase jockey. In 2006 he ran (and finished) the New York Marathon. He has been an adviser to senior Conservative Party figures for several years – particularly to the former Shadow Foreign Secretary, Michael Ancram QC MP – and ran for Parliament in 1997 and 2005."

Ben Jones selected for Halton

Ben Jones has been selected to contest the Cheshire seat of Halton at the next general election.

30 years old, he was born in Liverpool and lived in Rainhill and St Helens, before studying at the University of Liverpool. After several years in management consultancy, working for Accenture and KPMG, Ben now works for a medical regulator. He joined the Conservative Party in 1992.

The constituency covers the towns of Widnes and Runcorn is currently held by Labour's Derek Twigg with a majority of nearly 15,000.

Rahoul Bhansali adopted for Streatham

Rahoul Bhansali was selected last night for this seat with a projected Labour majority of 6,726 with the Tories in third place.

This is how he describes himself on the Bermondsey and Old Southwark Conservative website:

"I’ve lived in the constituency for the last 8 years. A technologist by trade, my work sees me implementing solutions to organisations' problems on a daily basis. These skills come in handy with neighbours and friends alike, when you live in such a crowded area as Bermondsey. In my spare time I enjoy travelling, socialising, playing cricket. I am also a keen consumer of food, be it sushi or pies. I joined Southwark Conservatives because I’m passionate about the need for local people to be involved in the management of local issues. Riverside ward should have more say in its own affairs with less interference from the town hall. The really great thing about the Association is the fact that 90% of our membership is between 20 – 35 years old. Whether its just going for a quick drink or canvassing an estate, there’s always a real buzz to what we’re doing."

James Wharton condemns abuse of Commons stationery by Stockton South Labour MP Dari Taylor

James Wharton, the Conservative candidate for Stockton South, has roundly condemned the sitting Labour MP for the seat, Dari Taylor, after she was the subject of a scathing report by the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee this week.

It found that she had misused Commons stationery and publicly-funded first-class pre-paid envelopes by using them to send out hundreds of circular letters for "political purposes", in which she boasted of achievements by the "Labour Government".

And it was not the first time that Ms Taylor has misused pre-paid Commons envelopes in this way.

As such, the committee was forthright in its conclusion:

"We are surprised that an experienced Member has repeated previous breaches of the rules and has failed to act in accordance with advice given by the House authorities. We particularly regret the fact that Ms Taylor has continued to dispute parts of the Commissioner’s findings and we are very disappointed that she has offered no apology. We conclude that Ms Taylor should pay the House authorities the sum of £500 and submit an unequivocal written apology."

James Wharton, who initiated the complaint against Ms Taylor, has been similarly robust in his own response:

“Taxpayers' money has been used to shore up the local Labour Party’s campaigning. This misuse of public funds places a serious question mark over her fitness for office.

“I have never seen a report as strongly worded as this, it is clear that the committee was shocked by the abuse of public money.

“This attempt to subvert democracy, by using public funds to pay for political campaigning, brings the whole democratic process into disrepute."

Stephen Holland selected to fight Stockport

Stephen Holland was last night selected to stand in Stockport at the next election.

Currently a borough councillor in Newcastle-under-Lyme, 33-year-old Stephen is also a board member of the Conservative Councillors' Association. A Chartered Tax Adviser by profession, he has advised the party on tax issues.

Stockport has been held by Ann Coffey for Labour since 1992 and Stephen will need to overturn a majority of just under 10,000 to take it back for the Conservatives.

Edinburgh's youngest councillor selected to unseat Alistair Darling

This report from the Edinburgh Evening News has been brought to our attention:

"Tory councillor Jason Rust has been chosen to stand against Chancellor Alistair Darling at the next General Election. Conservatives in Edinburgh South-West were left without a candidate when David Potts quit last month. Now Cllr Rust, who was Edinburgh's youngest councillor when he was first elected in 2004 at the age of 26, has been confirmed as candidate following a meeting on Friday night. He has been the party's housing spokesman on the council and is currently economic development spokesman."

Jason has our best wishes in overturning Mr Darling's projected majority of 7,242.

Final six for Hexham

Three men, three women:

1. Simon Chapman
2. Chris Emmett
3. Edward Heckels
4. Sheila Lawlor
5. Guy Opperman
6. Janice Small

Colin Bloom adopted for Erith & Thamesmead

Bromley Cllr Colin Bloom beat Peter Catterall, Spencer Drury and Melanie Michelle Lowe for a seat where the sitting Labour MP recently announced his retirement.  The seat has a projected Labour majority of 9,878.

Mark Menzies adopted for Fylde

Mark Menzies has been chosen over three women in the final for Fylde. Mark, who narrowly missed out on Selby in 2005, inherits Michael Jack's projected majority of a little more than 10,000.

7.30pm: The three women finalists were Mary Robinson, Fiona Kemp (who finished a close second) and Kay Mason.

Chris Grayling responds to the Glenrothes result

Chris Grayling, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, has been on the airwaves to give the official Conservative "morning after" reaction to the Glenrothes by-election.

Despite the fact that the party came third and lost its deposit, Mr Grayling has found some crumbs of comfort.

PoliticsHome reports his remarks on the BBC News Channel that the result still gave the Conservatives "a platform" to re-establish themselves in Scotland.

"We've moved from fourth to third and I think we've got a platform to start to build a proper platform in Scotland," he said, rejecting claims that the Union would be damaged by a future Conservative government with little Scottish representation.

"The lesson of the past week is what's taken a dent is Alex Salmond's view that the Union should be broken up," he said.

Alex Salmond's support for Scottish independence had "unravelled enormously during the credit crunch and the banking crisis," he added.

Update - David Cameron has also echoed those remarks on Sky News:

 

“I’m pleased the Conservatives went from fourth to third, but this was always going to be a battle between Labour and the SNP,” the Tory leader said. “The real loser is the Scottish National Party, and as they want to break up our country and to destroy the union that I’m passionate about, maybe it’s no bad thing that the Salmond bounce has now disappeared.

 

   

"The Conservative party is as I say, now establishing itself as the third party in Scotland. That’s progress for us but we’ve still got along way to go,” he added.

The morning after the night before in Glenrothes

Labour's shock hold of Glenrothes at yesterday's by-election - and by a margin of 6,737 votes - came as a something of a surprise to virtually every observer of the contest.

When I set out what was at stake yesterday, few thought a Labour victory possible, let alone likely - and certainly not on that scale.

Whilst the SNP spin is that they have almost halved Labour's majority in the seat and seen their own vote go up, the result must surely mark the end of Alex Salmond's extended honeymoon as Scotland's First Minister. His party started here with a far better infrastructure than in Glasgow East (which they won in July on a swing of over 20 per cent) and the confidence exuded by the SNP campaign all the way until polling day suggests that they too will have been flabbergasted by the extent of Labour's victory, on a swing to the SNP of a mere 5 per cent.

The Conservatives can take some heart from the fact that the party's candidate, Maurice Golden, beat the Liberal Democrat into fourth place, although naturally it was a disappointment to lose our deposit. However, there was always going to be a huge squeeze in this contest and the drop in the Lib Dem vote (down 10 per cent) was far more dramatic than the fall in the Tory vote share (down 3 per cent).

Those with more intimate knowledge of the seat will doubtless provide their analysis of how and why Labour won during the course of the day, but local factors clearly played a part, with the SNP having to defend the actions of the local council, whose leader was their candidate.

But Gordon Brown must be waking up with a smile on his face for the first time in quite a while, presumably seeing the result as a vindication of his own position.

Could it even persuade him to call a general election sooner than we all think?

Editorial comment from Tim Montgomerie:

"All Unionists should be delighted at this setback for the Nationalists. This is a significant bloody nose for Alex Salmond and makes him look foolish for his claims of likely victory.

"Ultimately Conservatives will be pleased that Gordon Brown stays in position. All polling evidence suggests that he is beatable in a General Election and a Brown v Cameron contest will not be one that Tories fear.

"Sometimes local elections and by-elections do turn on local issues and this election saw Labour campaign fiercely and effectively against various charges imposed by the SNP local council. Labour won't have that advantage in a national campaign against the Conservatives."

Nerissa Warner-O'Neill selected for Preston

Nerissa Warner-O’Neill has been selected to stand for the Conservatives in the Lancashire constituency of Preston at the next general election.

A former commercial litigator in the City of London, she has been a member of Waverley Borough Council in Surrey since 2007 and is now a commercial mediator.

Preston is currently held for Labour by Mark Hendrick, who will be defending a slightly reduced majority of around 8,500 after boundary changes are taken into account.

What's at stake in Glenrothes today?

Today's Glenrothes by-election provides challenges for all the major party leaders.

Most significantly, can Gordon Brown - who was forced to break with convention and campaign as Prime Minister in the seat which neighbours his own - demonstrate that there has been a meaningful bounce in his ratings that will enable Labour to hold on to the seat?

Labour held the seat with a majority of 10,664 in 2005 and it still requires a swing of over 14 per cent for the SNP to snatch it. If Labour cannot hold on here today, it would not bode at all well for their chances of fighting a general election on the basis of being best-placed to handle the economic crisis.

But then the SNP did win previously safe-as-houses Glasgow East from Labour at the by-election earlier in the summer on a swing of over 20 per cent, and they start with an advantage in Glenrothes in that the party already holds the almost identical Fife Central seat in the Scottish Parliament.

It is vital for Alex Salmond that the SNP gains the seat if he is to show that momentum is still with his party north of the border.

The challenge for David Cameron is less signifcant in this contest, which is a clear Labour/SNP fight - and the electorate knows it.

Nonetheless, the party has the challenge of overtaking the Liberal Democrats to take third place - as it did in Glasgow East in July.

Nick Clegg, meanwhile, will be hoping that his party can avoid losing its deposit, as was the case in Glasgow East.

Chris Phillips adopted as PPC for Lewisham West and Penge

Cllr Chris Phillips, a member of Bromley Council was tonight selected as PPC for West Lewisham and Penge (which includes three wards in Bromley). Chris Phillips' wife Sarah is councillor for Clockhouse ward and is the only Conservative councillor in the constituency. He beat Cllr Colin Bloom, Cabinet member for Public Protection and Community safety on Bromley Council, who fought Halton in 2005. Cllr Liz Stevenson (St Albans) one of the shortlist in Dulwich and West Norwood was the other shorlisted candidate.  The projected Labour majority is 8,764.

Jonathan Clamp selected for Lewisham East

Jonathan Clamp was selected to fight Lewisham East last night.  The Conservatives are in second place in the seat, currently held by Bridget Prentice for Labour.  Jonathan faces a projected Labour majority of nearly 9,000.

Will Quince selected for Colchester

25-year-old Will Quince has been selected to fight Colchester at the next election, replacing Jill Skalla, who stepped down as the Conservative candidate for the seat in August, citing "family and work responsibilities".

Born in Buckinghamshire, Will is currently a district councillor in East Hertfordshire and is a national account manager for Britvic in Chelmsford.

A former member of the Conservative Future national management executive, Will co-ordinated the East of England mutual aid for the Boris Johnson campaign and has committed himself to moving to Colchester "as soon as possible".

The seat has been held since 1997 by Liberal Democrat Bob Russell who will be defending a majority of around 6,000 after boundary changes at the next election.

Damian Collins runs campaign to remember WWI

The Sunday Express (article not online) features a non-partisan campaign by Damian Collins - the Tory candidate for the seat currently held by Michael Howard - to restore the Road of Remembrance to Folkestone harbour used by hundreds of thousands of soldiers in WWI.

This from the Facebook Group that marks the campaign:

"Step Short is a Folkestone based campaign group named after the command given to the hundreds of thousands of men who during the First World War marched down the Road of Remembrance to Folkestone harbour. The ‘Step Short’ group would like to see this Road restored to its former glory, and to provide a fitting memorial for all service personnel who passed through Folkestone – many of whom never returned.

The Group is bringing together residents, local historians, councillors and members of the creative community, all of whom share an interest in marking this important piece of history, and telling its story to new generations of people.

This project has added significance with the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War coming up in 2014.

Please do let us know if you would like to be involved with the project in anyway.

Step Short holds regular meetings in Folkestone to update people on the progress of the campaign, and all are welcome.

Please also let us know if you have any items of interest relating to Folkestone during the First World War."