David Cameron revealed at his monthly press conference that 4,000 people had now sent in applications to be Conservative candidates after his call for new people to come forward.
He said that extra resources were being put into the candidates' department and that he was impressed with many of the CVs he had seen himself, coming from people from "a variety of backgrounds and stages of life" - such as midwives, nurses, teachers and so on.
He said that extra parliamentary assessment boards are being planned to process the applicants and he defended opening up the list on the basis that since a number of people had decide to stand down, there were more seats available.
Jonathan Isaby
