ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog

Steve Baker adopted for Wycombe

Steve Baker was adopted for Wycombe this afternoon.

He beat Kwasi Kwarteng in the final ballot that earlier saw Margaret Doyle, Fiona Kemp, Katy Lindsay and Jeremy Quin eliminated.

He will inherit Paul Goodman MP's projected majority of 7,012.

Steve is a former RAF pilot engineer officer, an adviser to the Centre for Social Justice and promotes a decidedly Hayekian reading list.

More here.

Sunday update: Steve Baker has given ConHome the following statement:

"I am delighted and honoured to be adopted by Wycombe Conservatives. I am also humbled; the other candidates were first-class and I know each of them has worked long and hard at this. It will take a day or two for this to sink in. In the meantime, my wife and I are looking forward to moving back to the area, into the constituency, full time and I am excited about serving the people of Wycombe as my first priority."

Twickenham PPC Deborah Thomas demands answers from Vince Cable over the Lib Dems' use of an offensive image of a child in their propaganda

Here is the image (click it to enlarge) which the Richmond and Twickenham Liberal Democrats have used on their website in the last week to accompany a story accusing both the local Conservatives and a local campaign group of lying about a development issue. The story remains on the website, but the image has since been removed.

Nonetheless, the PPC for Twickenham, Deborah Thomas, has now written to her opponent, the incumbent MP Vince Cable, to complain about the matter and demanding answers to the following series of questions:

1. Who wrote the article?
2. Who authorised the article's publication?
3. Is anyone involved in the writing, research or publication of the article employed by you?
4. Is anyone involved in the writing, research or publication of the article employed at any cost by the taxpayer?
5. Was Cllr Wilson involved in the writing, research or publication of the article?
6. Do you admit that much of the article’s content is not based on truth?
7. Do you believe that this kind of campaigning has a place in the politics of Richmond Borough? Is this your idea of “clean campaigning”?
8. Did you obtain permission from the parents of the child involved to use their image?
9. Did you pay for the use of the child’s image and if so, did that payment come out of taxpayers’ funds? 
10. Furthermore, has any of the Communications Allowance been used to finance the article in any way shape or form?
11. What disciplinary action will be taken over the named individuals responsible for the article’s publication? Please provide names and what action will be taken.
12. As the figurehead of your local party, will you issue a public apology for the offence this has caused?

We will let you know as and when he responds.

Jonathan Isaby

Eric Pickles and not John Maples should draw up emergency shortlists

ConHome was very grateful for Tuesday's clarification of the party's position on All Women Shortlists.

David Cameron's suggestion that merit and not gender will be the over-riding criteria for the drawing up of shortlists satisfies us that we are likely to have some All Women Shortlists but that those Shortlists will not be automatically 'all women' but will be 'all women' from study of candidates' qualities.  As I wrote at the time I'm perfectly ready to accept that a list that included, for example, Fiona Bruce, Chris Emmett and Julia Manning is of AAA quality and should satisfy any Conservative Association (except perhaps SW Norfolk!).

My one final request is that Eric Pickles is in charge of the drawing up of these shortlists rather than John Maples.  Mr Maples is ideologically in favour of AWS and after his insulting article of last week I don't think he has the trust of grassroots members.

In an ideal world, of course, Conservative Associations will still have the freedom to draw up their own shortlists and that is why it is important that MPs who intend to retire announce soon so that Associations do not have CCHQ shortlists imposed upon them.  Jonathan Isaby's letter to MPs encouraging early announcement features in this morning's Independent.

Tim Montgomerie

Public oppose All Women Shortlists by two-to-one

A new poll from Angus Reid (a new pollster establishing in Britain and providing a regular voting intentions survey for PoliticalBetting.com) has found that 58% of Britons oppose All Women Shortlists and just 23% support them:

The poll also finds a small number of people who say they are more likely to vote for a female candidate than a male candidate:

Unlike PoliticalBetting's Mike Smithson I'm not sure that poll tells us very much at all. Two factors could easily overwhelm that narrow advantage for an Association picking a woman:

1. The female candidate may not be a great campaigner and there is evidence that a lot of the women promoted by CCHQ in the early stages of the A-list are less effective campaigners. Most Conservative Associations have been more discerning than CCHQ and rather than rushing to hit an artificial 50/50 target have been choosing the best women candidates (30% of Associations are choosing women from a list that is made up of about 30% women). I'm very impressed with the calibre of the candidates unfairly called "Cameron's Cuties' and 'Dave's Dolls'!
2. The fallout from imposing All Women Shortlists. The lesson from Labour is that AWS can divide local parties. The small advantage of a female candidate suggested by the Angus Reid polling could be overturned if local activists walk away or, worse, support an independent candidate.

For the record I believe Parliament will be richer with more women Tory MPs. I'd also like to see the parliamentary Conservative Party have more people from the voluntary sector and with backgrounds in maths and science. We need more more candidates rooted in the north and a few more with experience beyond the Westminster village. Forcing Associations to choose from AWS and pursuingnarrow and entirely-gender-based targets is a recipe for internal conflict and Cameron's change of tactics yesterday shows he has recognised that.

Tim Montgomerie

Richard Normington resigns as PPC for Cambridge

News reaches me that Richard Normington has just stepped down as candidate for Cambridge, a seat for which he was selected back in December 2007.

No statement has been issued but it seems that his decision is not unrelated to the election and subsequent actions of a new team of senior association officers this year.

Jonathan Isaby

12.30pm update: Below is the exchange of letters between Mr Normington and Baroness Perry, the association President.

Dear Pauline,

For nearly two years now I have been the Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman for Cambridge, working with James Strachan and now Sarah El Neil as the chairmen of the Association.

During that time we saw the election of a Conservative back onto the City Council, our party overtake Labour at the European Elections to challenge the Lib Dems for top billing, and campaigns to improve life in our City including against congestion charging and to keep post offices open.

However, having done this, and with the prospect of an autumn election passing, I am now stepping down. The Association has a new leadership and I believe needs a new person to take the fight into the final months of the campaign. I hope my successor can be chosen swiftly.

I look forward to working with whoever is chosen to ensure Cambridge plays its part in the election of a Cameron-led government. You know that at the next election the question will be whether Gordon Brown or David Cameron will be Prime Minister. Only a vote for a Conservative candidate will put David into Downing Street.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Normington

Final six for Devizes

The following six have been shortlisted to succeed Michael Ancram:

• Victoria Atkins
• Paul Hearn
• Claire Perry
• Jeremy Quin
• Nadhim Zahawi
• Zehra Zaidi

More on the Devizes Conservative Association website.

An open letter to Conservative MPs: Will you undertake to decide whether to stand again before Christmas?

At his press conference yesterday, I asked David Cameron whether he would advise Conservative MPs to announce before Christmas whether they intended standing down or not - on the basis that those announcing after January 1st 2010 will see shortlists imposed on their constituency Conservative association.

Alas Mr Cameron simply said: "It's up to individuals to decide when to make the announcement".

Previously, party chairman Eric Pickles told ConservativeHome that he did want his colleagues to "make their minds up before Christmas in order that associations get 'the widest possible choice they can'."

I agree - and today am sending the following letter to the 166 Conservative MPs who have not announced that they are standing down, in order to seek undertakings that if they are going to go, that they will announce their intentions before Christmas and ensure that their associations do not have to select under the restrictive by-election rules...

Dear Member of Parliament,

You will be aware that David Cameron has said that where a sitting Conservative MP announces his or her intention to stand down at the general election after January 1st 2010, the so-called 'by-election rules" will come into play for selecting a successor.

In other words, the usual application process will be ditched and CCHQ will simply give a list of only three or four names to an association from which to select a new candidate.

This is in contrast to the current standard process whereby elected local association officers get to choose who makes the shortlist.

As of today, 33 of your colleagues have already stated they will not be seeking re-election as a Conservative candidate at the general election, which is now a matter of a few months away.

Given the restricted freedom that associations will have over the selection process in seats where Members announce their retirement in the New Year, I believe it would be respectful to those hard-working activists for Members to make their intentions clear before Christmas as to whether or not they intend to seek re-election.

All those that do announce their retirements before Christmas will allow their associations the maximum choice of candidates allowed under the current rules; those who wait until after Christmas will leave their members by-passed and given a centrally-imposed shortlist from which to select a new candidate.

So I am writing to you today to ask you the following:

• Have you been re-adopted to stand at the general election and is it your intention to be a candidate at the general election?
• Do you undertake to make a final decision about whether to seek re-election before Christmas, i.e. not to announce your retirement - save an unforeseen health problem - at such a time that would restrict the rights of your members in choosing a successor?

I am publishing this letter on ConservativeHome, where I will also be collating and publishing your answers to the above questions.

I am very grateful for your time and I look forward to your response.

With best wishes,

Jonathan Isaby
Co-Editor, ConservativeHome

Gosport will be the next constituency to run an all-postal primary

After the success of an all-postal ballot in Totnes in the summer, David Cameron announced at his press conference yesterday morning that the party would shortly be announcing two further proper all-postal pirmaries.

ConservativeHome can reveal this morning that the first of these will be taking place in Gosport, the constituency where retiring MP Sir Peter Viggers infamously claimed for a duck house.

Six candidates will be narrowed down to four by the local association, with the primary ballot being launched on November 12th. December 3rd November 20th will see a public hustings, with December 4th being the deadline for the return of ballot papers, followed by the count.

10am update: Eric Pickles has officially confirmed this news:

"I hope this will build on the success of Totnes. It's vital that we continue to empower local people and allow them to have the final say. I hope this will encourage people in Gosport not previously interested in politics to get involved and get their voice heard."

Jonathan Isaby

The unacceptable treatment of Liz Truss

Earlier today I gave Liz Truss ConHome's full support.

I fully expected tonight's meeting of SW Norfolk Conservatives to endorse Liz Truss but they've delayed doing so and have voted to "review their candidate" at a special meeting in three weeks' time.  Crazy.

SW Norfolk made an inspired decision on Saturday to select Liz. She is an innovative thinker and long-time Conservative. Her work at the Reform think tank is of the highest quality. All the information about her private life is in the public domain. Nothing was hidden.

ConHome will always defend the grassroots. The average Conservative member is decent and public-spirited but SW Norfolk Tories are stretching patience to breaking point.   

Tim Montgomerie

8.15am, 28th October: Louise Bagshawe's verdict: "SW Norfolk's Executive have damaged the reputation of our national party. They have damaged all the work that David Cameron and many other forward-thinking associations round the country have done to show how we have changed, selecting candidates from a broad base, women as well as men."

Liz Truss has ConservativeHome's full support

Over the last 48 hours ConservativeHome has hesitated to cover the controversy about Liz Truss' selection but the story about her past private life has now gotten legs and a few commenters (quite reasonably) are asking why Jonathan Isaby and I have been downplaying the issue.

A few quick comments:

• I did actually back Liz Truss in the comments thread as soon as the issue of her private life was raised.
• Liz was one of the twenty candidates I tipped for selection. I remain of the view that she'll be an excellent MP.
• A few disgruntled grassroots members are unhappy at Liz Truss' past private life but there is no evidence that they are a significant number. Some people who want to disenfranchise the Tory grassroots are exaggerating the level of discontent.
• Tonight's meeting of the SW Norfolk Executive is incorrectly billed as a meeting to discuss whether Liz should be deselected. it is actually a meeting to review the whole of the selection process. Her selection will be one of the issues discussed. Will she be deselected? Almost certainly not.

Tim Montgomerie

5.30pm: Iain Dale also backs Liz Truss

David Cameron changes tactics on All Women Shortlists

David Cameron has just finished his monthly press conference and in an answer to a question from Jonathan Isaby he appeared to make an important but subtle shift in policy on All Women Shortlists.

I don't have a transcript but he said that there were very high quality women on the candidates list and when by-election rules come into place from the new year (ie CCHQ imposes shortlists of three on Conservative Associations) selecting seats will have the choice of three very high quality candidates and sometimes they will all be women.  They'll be chosen on merit and there won't be any automatic all women shortlists, he implied.  I can certainly see a great number of All Women Shortlists that would be AAA quality. One that comes to mind would be Fiona Bruce, Chris Emmett and Julia Manning.

So we'll have All Women Shortlists by accident and not by design. Hmmm. If pro-AWS John Maples was NOT drawing them up I could just about believe it.  We need to keep the pressure on.

Tim Montgomerie

1pm: The other announcements at David Cameron's monthly press conference

4.15pm: Coffee House's verdict: "Cameron’s comments on women shortlists did, as ConservativeHome notes, seem to mark a bit of a shift in policy. If the proposal had been couched in these terms to begin with, I doubt there would have been such a row — a row that both managed to irritate the grassroots and, in various quarters, reinforced negative stereotypes about the party. All in all, this business has been a poor piece of politics and party management from Team Cameron."

Stanley Johnson: If All-Women shortlists are on the agenda, then why not All-Over-60s shortlists too?

Stanley Johnson is a former Conservative MEP who contested Teigbridge at the 2005 general election and is father of London Mayor, Boris Johnson. His memoir, Stanley I Presume, was recently published by Fourth Estate/Harper Collins.

The other day my daughter Rachel, the newly-appointed editor of The Lady (she says she always wanted a title), bumped into Michael Howard at a party.

“Why don’t you tell your father to stop applying for seats?” he said.

“Why don’t you?” Rachel replied. “In any case, why shouldn’t he apply?”

“He’s too old.”

My daughter, loyally, bridled at this. “What democratic country regards age as a barrier to election?”

“Ours does” Michael said brusquely. “I’m 68 and I’m stepping down.”

I have a lot of respect for Michael Howard. I fought the Devon seat of Teignbridge at the last election in May 2005 when Michael was our leader. I thought he had a clear and convincing programme: easy for senior citizens to grasp. Taller policemen, lower taxes... that kind of thing. Yet, according to Rachel, Michael sounded pretty "ageist".

My wife, of course, agrees totally with Michael. She is convinced that the only reason I am still throwing my hat in the ring as a candidate is that I can’t face the idea of going shopping in Tesco which is what elderly couples often seem to do. It is true that I hate shopping, but that is not the whole story.  I know it is not fashionable to say so nowadays in the light of ExpensesGate etc but for as long as I can remember I have regarded being an MP in the Mother of Parliaments as a supremely honourable calling.  When I was ten-years old and still at Prep School I wrote a letter to Winston Churchill congratulating him on his election victory (October 1951) and still have the reply I received from 10 Downing Street!

Eleanor Laing MP wins confidence vote of Epping Forest Conservatives

The Epping Forest MP's local paper has the background to tonight's meeting; but news reaches me that Eleanor Laing has won tonight's vote of confidence.

Despite having secured the support of her executive committee at a meeting earlier in the month, I understand that it was the President of the Association, Di Collins, who successfully petitioned (with the requisite 50 signatures) for tonight's Special General Meeting of the association.

More as and when we have it.

10.15pm update: I am reliably informed that the voting was 164 in Mrs Laing's favour, with only 32 against.

Jonathan Isaby

Immigration and Unemployment are the big issues of the week for Margot James in Stourbridge, as she also finds time in her schedule to begin preparing for Christmas...

Each week a different PPC provides us with an insight into life as a candidate and gives us a flavour of their own campaign and interests. If you are a candidate and are keen to be featured, please email Jonathan Isaby.

This week’s diary is written by Margot James, who was selected in December 2006 for Stourbridge, a seat where she requires a swing of 1.5% to overturn a notional Labour majority of 1,280. I'll let her introduce herself...

"I spend most of my time out and about in Stourbridge, I still do some business consultancy but most of my time away from the campaign is spent with family and friends.  I am passionate about hanging on to some ‘normal life’ despite the all consuming nature of the election campaign. Stourbridge is Labour’s most marginal seat in the West Midlands. Number 25 on our list of must wins it is actually the seat that, arithmetically speaking, will sink Labour’s overall majority if we win.  The BBC have clocked this and are housing a production team here who will broadcast the Sunday version of the Politics Show throughout the election from Stourbridge as soon as the Election is called. Here's my Diary of the week..."

Saturday 17th October
I had quite a late night with friends on Friday at the Red Fort restaurant in Wollaston so got off to a slower start listening to the weekly Farming Today round up on Radio 4. Made me resolve to try and eat organic meat whenever possible. Off to meet the team in Amblecote. We normally canvass on a Saturday morning but today we had to prioritise delivery of our addressed survey, 80% done now so not much longer to go and we will have surveyed every home in the constituency for the second time since I arrived. We delivered over a thousand surveys and leaflets and met up afterwards at the Robin Hood Pub, one of Stourbridge’s best.

I couldn’t stay long as next up was the Stourbridge Bonded Warehouse Open Weekend, to give it its full title. Saturday is a day of stalls, dancing, vintage cars and steam engines alongside the canal. I met lots of people I knew and some I didn’t on my way to join Cllr David Caunt, ex leader of Dudley Council, on his beautiful boat ‘Cornelia’. We chugged up to Wordsley Junction and back and it was a lovely ride. Each year I resolve to spend more time on the canal – but the nearest I have got in the last twelve months is walking Lotus (my old black Labrador) up the towpath a few times.  The canal is one of the many things I love about Stourbridge.

Left late afternoon to meet friends in the Cotswolds. My partner, Jay, is working all weekend, so I’ve got a friend, Julie, who has just heard from CCHQ that she has a PAB early in November, coming round for supper to pick my brains about the interview process. Julie brings her divine two year old retriever who is completely manic.

Christina Dykes: All-Women Shortlists break all notions of fairness

Christina Dykes has recently been appointed Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow in the Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences at City University London.  She is an adviser to Dominic Grieve MP and ran the Candidates Department during the last Parliament.

I am against all women short lists (AWSL). I find them anachronistic.

• Any positive discrimination on the one hand is negative discrimination on the other.
• Evidence suggests that AWSL do not work in the long run.  Research into the use of positive discrimination strategies in the work place suggests that these help to maintain perceptions that women and minorities are less effective.
• I cannot understand how a leadership which espouses localism based on the objective of redistributing power from the centre to communities can then be profoundly centralist which it comes to letting Associations choose MPs.
• Even if the outcome is one that we all support, I instinctively dislike the practice of manipulating a system in favour of any one chosen group.  It gives a great deal of unchecked power to those who do the choosing, breaking all notions of fairness.

I believe it is important that Parliament reflects the society it represents.  Dominance by any one sector of society would not be democratic. When I became Director of Candidates in 2001 my brief was to increase diversity in the Parliamentary Party; I was told that I should not resort to the accepted tools of the day – twinning, zipping, and above all AWSL.  The assessment centre that Jo Silvester (Professor of Occupational Psychology) and I designed was based on best practice from the commercial world (where the “war for talent” is very real).  We adopted a competency-based model which rated candidates according to their skills, measured against those that they would need to be a MP.  We established these through a job analysis to identify the knowledge, skills, abilities and other attributes that are required to perform the role effectively.  We believe that this was the first time that this had been done in a thorough and systematic way.

In 2002-3 we assessed 415 people of whom 106 went on to be PPCs.  This gave us enough data to evaluate the system to see, firstly, if we were able to establish whether there was any difference in aptitude between men and women; and secondly, using the 106 PPCs performance in the 2005 general election, to see which skills were the most predictive of performance.

Rory Stewart adopted for Penrith and the Border

Stewart has a long Wikipedia entry: "Rory Stewart, OBE (born 1973), is the Executive Chairman of the British charity, the Turquoise Mountain Foundation and the Ryan Family Professor of the Practice of Human Rights and the Director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He formerly served in the British Army and in the British Foreign Service, where he worked in Indonesia and the Balkans and, most famously, as governor of a province of occupied Iraq in 2003-2004. He is known for his book about this experience, The Prince of the Marshes, his epic 2000-2002 walk across Afghanistan, which served as the basis for another book, The Places in Between, and his later cultural development work in Afghanistan."

More here.

8.45pm: Paul Waugh sees Mr Stewart as a future Prime Minister.

Twenty ideas to encourage more women Tory MPs

On Friday I published the results of a ConHome survey of 1,899 Tory members.  It found massive opposition to All Women Shortlists.  I also asked a question about what measures might be introduced to promote female candidates.  By far the most common answer was something like "Candidates should be chosen on merit only," "The sex of the candidate should not be an issue" and "None, the best person for the job is more important than their gender." Listed below, however, are twenty more specific ideas:

1. End strong arm tactics: "Strong arm tactics can backfire and probably will in some areas".  Another said: "CCO have interfered so much that every Association is suspicious women aren't there on merit.  Stop all positive discimination and go back to a level playing field."
2. Promotional video: Make a YouTube video featuring Priti Patel and Philippa Stroud and our other impressive female candidates. They could explain how they succeeded in becoming candidates.
3. Headhunt from female-dominated backgrounds: "More women attracted onto the Candidates List from careers where women dominate, including teaching and healthcare" plus "Targeting the public sector and small businesses to encourage more women to come forward who are not Westminster centric in their backgrounds."
4. A more balanced candidates list: CHQ putting more women and less men on the approved list in the firstplace.
5. Tackle the financial handicap facing women candidates: "Bursaries for full time mothers who otherwise might not afford the process of candidate selection", "Setting up a scheme to give financial help to PPCs on moderate incomes with child care needs" and "More support for selected candidates in fighting elections so that all candidates can balance family, childcare and the cost of the campaign."
6. Force rich candidates to declare special help: Make candidates declare whether they have had specialist coaching. Many rich men have paid for special help. Associations should know this.
7. Reduce the burdens on candidates: Many female candidates are put off by the endless Association events and the requirement to attend every by election. Allow them to focus on the essential.
8. A more family-friendly House of Commons: Better childminding facilities in House of Commons and more family friendly hours.
9. More protection from the media for MPs and their families: A party leadership that protects MPs when the media mob goes after them. Any mother will have noted that Cameron threw his MPs to the wolves.
10. Shadow cabinet mentoring: Every shadow cabinet minister should adopt a female candidate and be encouraged to help her get selected.
11. Move to open primary ballots: It was not an accident that a woman won in Totnes when it was tried.
12. Independent guidance for Associations: At the start of every selection meeting a professional headhunter should talk to the Association about the value of female candidates. If this person is a professional and not a CCHQ functionary they will get a hearing.
13. 'Blind sifting': At sift stage no indication given as to age, sex background etc of candidate.
14. A less macho selection process: No speeches in selection contests. They favour men. Use sofa style interviews.  One respondent wrote: "A selection method that involves more than just the ability to "perform" to a large audience. This is why women don't do well. The entire process is geared up to assess only the ability to perform in a "question time" style arena. Ability to influence legislation, work in committee and connect to constituents is entirely absent from the final stages of the assessment. It is no wonder that we end up with MPs who lack integrity and ability, since they've only been assessed on a single dimension - the ability to charm an audience - which is directly correlated with the ability to manipulate, and almost entirely unconnected with the ability to add real value. We select "talking heads" not good decision makers. It depends whether you want MPs who are good at talking or good at doing. We get the former, but not the latter." Another wrote: "Less focus on just the big meeting. Women are often very good on the doorstep and in chairing, participating in meetings - not just a few gags in a big meeting. As a candidate, the doorstep and meeting side is so very important."
15. Punishment of sexism: Expulsion of any Tory member who asks sexist questions.
16. ConHome should "bless" "sound" candidates: Too many women candidates are newly recruited and we don't know if they are true conservatives. The grassroots trust ConHome and its blessing would carry weight.
17. Pooled selections: Multiple selections - people may be more willing to pick a mixture if they have to pick more than one.   
18. Require constituency selection panels to be balanced: Require the selection panel to be balanced by age and gender and allow them to choose from any number of males and females on a shortlist.
19. Executive committee selection: Revert to selection by constituency executive committee, thus cutting out the large numbers of older women heavily prejudiced against women candidates and especially opposed to women candidates with children.
20. Patience: The number of women candidates has grown a lot in last few years. It will grow again with time. Rushing the issue will leadto inferior women candidates getting selected.

Tim Montgomerie

The eighty women most likely to be Tory MPs

The Mail on Sunday has prepared an excellent photographic guide to the eighty Tory women most likely to be on the green benches after the next General Election.

The feature includes the scoop that a fighting fund is being put together to oppose All Women Shortlists. ConHome is aware of a plan to form an "Association of Associations" to resist CCHQ and that a £15,000 donation has already been pledged to give the AofA legal advice and a website.

Former Education Secretary Gillian Shepherd joins the chorus of opposition to AWS:

"It is an insult to women for anyone to give the impression that they need special treatment. It doesn’t happen in any other profession. I don’t live in a Harriet Harman world."

Opponents of AWS within CCHQ need a few women selections in order to be able to resist AWS from January.  Yesterday's selection of Liz Truss strengthened their hand.  Later today Penrith selects.

Tim Montgomerie

Liz Truss selected for South West Norfolk

Many congratulations to Elizabeth Truss who has been selected to fight Norfolk SW for the Conservatives at the next election.

She will inherit Christopher Fraser's notional majority of nearly 7,000.

Liz has been a driving force behind the Reform think tank's agenda for public service efficiency and was on my list of twenty top tips for parliament.

Her selection ends the run of male selections and will be used by the opponents of All Women Shortlists within CCHQ to thwart John Maples' ambition to introduce them.

Tim Montgomerie

Nominations open for Beckenham and Stretford & Urmston

Only two seats appear in the latest tranche to be selecting a Conservative candidate:

Beckenham: Where Jacqui Lait MP is stepping down at the next election. There are quite significant boundary changes, which will make the seat far safer for the Conservatives than at present. In fact, she will bequeath a notional Conservative majority of 16,913, which - in percentage terms - would makes it currently the safest Tory seat in the country, according to the projection of Professors Rallings and Thrasher of the University of Plymouth.

Stretford and Urmston: The seat where Mark Versallion stood down as candidate earlier this week. Labour MP Beverly Hughes is standing down at the election and the new Conservative candidate will need a swing of 10.65% to overturn a notional Labour majority of 8,310.

Applications close at midday on Friday October 30th.

Jonathan Isaby

John Maples MP: We had hoped to avoid all women shortlists but the last eight selections have been of men

John Maples MP is Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party with responsibility for candidate selection.

The selection of more women candidates and the election of more women MPs have been stated objectives of the Party for several years.  Overall we are pleased that nearly 30% of selected candidates are women.  If we win the next election, there will be around 60 Conservative women MPs, compared with 18 currently.  This will be a great improvement.

Up until the summer, in Conservative held seats, 10 women (37%) had been selected and 17 men (62%).  Since then there have been 5 selections under the old process and 3 under the new procedure (with shortlists of 6 candidates, half men and half women).   All 8 selections have produced male candidates.  The only woman selected has been Sarah Wollaston, in the all postal primary in Totnes.  This trend is not acceptable.

We will continue to use the new procedure until the end of the year and we are currently aware of 12 Conservative held seats that will select by this method.  This will mean that 21 such seats will have selected over the last six months of 2009.  After January 1st we will use our by-election procedure, under which the Party Chairman, after consultation with Association officers and others, gives the Association a shortlist of 3-6 candidates to go to a general meeting of members.

What David Cameron said to the Speakers Conference was “…if any MP stands down either shortly before or after that date (January 1st), the central Party provides the shortlist to the Association, and it is my intention, if we continue as we are, that some of those shortlists will indeed be all women shortlists, to help us boost the number of Conservative women MPs…”

We have avoided using all women shortlists so far and had hoped to continue to do so, but we cannot let the current trend continue.

The six finalists for Esher & Walton

This statement has just been published by Esher & Walton:

"On behalf of all the EWCA Candidate Selection Committee I wish to thank every person who submitted their CV.  We received a huge number of CV’s for consideration and the standard was extremely high with candidates applying from all walks of life, from all over the country, with varied experiences and successes making our final choice of candidates extremely hard.

We had a number of local candidates apply and we are especially grateful for their interest in representing the Constituency and we look forward to working actively with these party members in the future.

We believe the final six candidates represent the best of the best and the quality of their applications and the personal career histories, both inside and outside of politics, will ensure that whoever is chosen at our Open Primary will make an excellent Conservative PPC and hopefully our future Constituency MP. We would like to wish all those candidates who did not get short listed every success for the future.

The six candidates going through to the Executive Council meeting on Wednesday 28th October are:

• Rob Butler
• Margaret Doyle
• Sajid Javid
• Jo-Anne Nadler
• Dominic Raab
• Elizabeth Truss.*"

* Following Elizabeth Truss's selection in South West Norfolk, Christine Emmett will be the sixth finalist

Retiring MP Ian Taylor told ConHome that he was "delighted that the open primary will have a strong and qualified group which should enable a lively contest to become Conservative Candidate." He continued: "Although very varied in their background and experience, any of the 6 will be a pleasure to work with in the run up to the election – and a credit to the constituency if they are elected thereafter."

Tim Montgomerie

CCHQ has trashed principle after principle in its manipulation of candidate selection

The decision by David Cameron to introduce all women shortlists (AWS) - a move he described as a "step too far" just three years ago - is the latest in a long line of decisions taken by the Tory leadership to control the selection of Tory candidates and has, in the process, eroded key conservative principles.

MERIT

It all began with the A-list.  The candidates on the A-list (particularly the female candidates) performed less well in previous election campaigns than the men.  22 of the original A-listers achieved swings above the national average swing of 2.21% and 46 achieved below-average swings. Getting on to the A-list was not a rigorous process with candidates revealing that they faced very different interview processes. Some even had second chances.

Given that 70% of approved candidates are men (and the number of women applying to be Tory candidates was actually falling at one point) there was always an unfairness in half-women shortlists (HWS) - an unfairness that boiled over into rebellion at Dudley North.  ConservativeHome warned that HWSs could have a perverse effect.   We wrote this in August 2006: "Any attempt to impose half-women shortlists may backfire.  Associations may, perversely, think that any woman in the final round is there to make up a quota rather than because of her intrinsic merits."  That is exactly what has happened.  The proportion of women selected has fallen since HWSs became compulsory.

DEMOCRACY

If Associations refused to accept HWSs they lost the right for all local members to have the final say in candidate selection.

Also under David Cameron's watch ordinary party members lost the right to deselect sitting MEPs.  If they had not lost that right we might have seen Edward McMillan-Scott MEP deselected before he caused such trouble for the party since.

Another subversion of democracy was the decision to put women at the top of regional MEP lists even if they received fewer votes than men.

CCHQ expects volunteer activists to devote years of fundraising and envelope-stuffing to the party but they no longer trust them to choose their parliamentary candidates or their MEPs.

SOCIAL JUSTICE

We need more women MPs.  We need them on grounds of fairness but also because a debate involving women is richer than one without.  We also need more people from public sector backgrounds and people with experience of the voluntary and poverty-fighting sectors.  I do not think it is helpful that quite so many Tory MPs are from the City, law, the south and from private schools.  True diversity is about more than more women.  If diversity was a key aim the criteria for the A-list were too superficial.  ConservativeHome's own campaign to help lower income candidates has been consistently overlooked by CCHQ.

TRANSPARENCY

CCHQ tried to keep the A-list secret (something ConHome corrected) but the lesson on transparency was not learnt.  CCHQ suppressed the data on membership numbers and turnout during last year's vote on non-incumbent MEP candidates.

LOCALISM

In all of the above the idea that local institutions are instinctively trusted by Team Cameron has been comprehensively trashed.

COURTESY

Throughout the whole process there has been a lack of courtesy to the candidates seeking a seat.  They all make enormous sacrifices for the party and pay an annual fee to be on the candidates list but were not informed if they did not get on to second waves of the A-list.  A ConHome straw poll found that candidates had to ring CCHQ at least three times before getting their phone calls returned.

***

CCHQ will justify AWS on the basis that they are necessary to correct an historical wrong. The same arguments have been used for all ethnic minority work contracts in the USA. Are the Conservatives now willing to support such contracts? They have surrendered any principled opposition to them with this decision on AWS.

Tim Montgomerie

"No local candidates" on Esher and Walton shortlist

Their identities are yet to emerge, but the Elmbridge Guardian is reporting that of the final six names in the frame for the Esher and Walton nomination, none are from the constituency itself, despite applications having come from a variety of local councillors and constituency activists:

"The Conservative Association will announce their six candidates on Friday, but the Elmbridge Guardian has learnt that it has opted for three men and three women, with two reserves. Although none of them live in the constituency, one candidate does have "very strong local connections" the Guardian has been told. In September, the Tories announced they would use an American-style open primary system to choose their next candidate, following current MP Ian Taylor’s announcement he would stand down at the next general election."

I gather that 193 people applied for the seat and the meeting to select a successor to Ian Taylor will take place on November 21st at Sandown Park.

We'll publish the names of the six finalists as soon as we have them - if you have any information to share, as ever you can email me in confidence via [email protected].

Jonathan Isaby

Has David Cameron's plan for all-women shortlists actually harmed the chances of women being selected in the imminent selections?

The reaction from readers to the news that David Cameron is planning on using all-women shortlists for selections coming up in the New Year was almost universally hostile.

I have just written this piece for Comment is Free on the Guardian website summarising my feelings on the issue.

But I do wonder whether there will be a backlash from the grassroots - clearly hostile to the all-women shortlists - which will actually result in fewer women being selected in the seats choosing candidates in the coming weeks.

If members think that before too long only women will be getting onto shortlists, is there not a danger that they might (consciously or subconsciously) overlook them in favour of male candidates while male candidates are still in the running?

Just a thought.

Jonathan Isaby

Mark Versallion steps down as PPC for Stretford and Urmston

I have learnt today that Mark Versallion has just stepped down as PPC for Stretford and Urmston due to pressures of his job. He has released the following statement:

"Much has changed in the last two years since I was selected.  The need to spend more time on my business in London due to the recession means I am not able to commit the time to the constituency that I believe a candidate needs to in order to win this seat for the Conservatives. I am grateful to everyone in the Association who has supported me over these past two and a quarter years and I look forward to supporting the new candidate in whatever way I can in the future."

Paul Lally, the association chairman accepted Mark's decision with regret:

"We have regretfully accepted Mark's decision to step down.  The recession has affected all our lives and we respect Mark's integrity in taking this course of action.  We thank Mark for the time and effort that he has given to Stretford and Urmston over the last two years and wish him, his wife and two young sons all the best for the future."

The association will begin selecting a new candidate later this month for a seat which is currently held for Labour by Beverly Hughes, who is herself standing down at the election. The new Conservative candidate will need a swing of 10.65% to overturn a notional Labour majority of 8,310.

The defeated candidates at the open primary in July 2007 were James Atkins and Suhail Rahuja.

Jonathan Isaby

Nadine Dorries MP explains her fear that all-women shortlists will create two classes of Conservative MP

Nadine Dorries is MP for Mid Befordshire and writes her own blog.

Not surprisingly, the atmosphere on the Conservative back benches is somewhat febrile since David Cameron stated his intention to consider implementing all women shortlists for candidate selection.

I just would like to state that this isn't really news. It has always been David's intention to consider anything which would make Parliament more representative of the people for whom it legislates. No Conservative leader has ever attempted to unite equality with meritocracy and increase the number of women selected as Conservative candidates to the extent David has.

From Women2Win, a candidates department and staff committed to assisting associations with guidance in selection, to the A-List, he has jumped through hoops in a few short years to do everything he possibly can.

The latest initiative has taken the party through a squeaky clean wash cycle of open primaries for key vacancies, of which six constituencies out of seven selected men. When once it was the Conservative associations who were blamed for selecting a certain type of candidate, who do we blame for this? The open primary voting audience is made up of members of the public of all political parties or none, of all genders and backgrounds. We are giving the public, for goodness sake every single woman in the neighbourhood, a chance to do it for themselves, only they aren't.

As only 30% of applications to become an MP are from women, and that’s after all the hype and window dressing, we have to ask the question, what do women really want? Because it’s becoming pretty obvious that 70% of them don't want to be an MP.

Joanne Cash defends David Cameron's plans for all-women shortlists

Joanne Cash is prospective parliamentary candidate for Westminster North.

We are all agreed that politics is in crisis. The public are disenchanted with all parties. Apathy is at an all time high and as they say in any relationship “indifference is the killer”.

In my view the fact that parliament is still largely comprised of white middle class men who look and sound the same is a significant part of the problem.
Parliament needs to be significantly modernised and reformed.  Having pledged to fix our economy, our society and our politics, it falls to us to lead the way on this. Part of that involves ensuring plenty of female MP’s in the next parliament.

The reality of day-to-day life in Britain in 2009 is that 70% of women work, making up half of the national workforce. Those same women are at the heart of British families as opinion formers and consumers. The harnessing of the energy and goodwill of these women will be vital to implement the policies necessary to repair a broken Britain. 

Yet at present only 30% of our Candidates’ list is women. We clearly need to encourage more women to consider a career in politics. The public is entitled to ask itself why we select such a low proportion of women and telling them it is because there is a low number on the list only begs more questions. We must do something to break that vicious circle. Until the far-reaching change needed in politics has come the least we can do is improve the chances for the 30% of women who are on our candidates’ list so that our party becomes more representative of the country it seeks to govern.

Dave’s proposal would not be needed if so many Associations weren’t so resistant to change. They like having the type of (white, male) candidates they are used to. It may not be conscious but it feels familiar and safe. If that isn’t the case - if it didn’t require audacious intervention by David Cameron - how come Priti Patel took so many years to find a winnable seat, or Jane Ellison or Andrea Leadsom or the many other brilliant women candidates selected since Dave became Leader?

All women shortlists are fundamentally unConservative and they have no place in a party pledged to meritocracy and localism

David Cameron has just given evidence to to the Speaker's Conference on making Parliament more representative of the nation. Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg separately gave evidence, with all three leaders being challenged about what they are doing to improve the proportions of people likely to be elected to Parliament who are women, LGBT, disabled, or from an ethnic minority.

The words that deserve to make the headlines are these from David Cameron:

"From January, we move to what we call our by-election procedure, which is that if any MP stands down either shortly before that date or after that date, the central party provides the shortlist to the association and it's my intention that if we continue as we are, that some of those shortlists will indeed be all-women shortlists to help us boost the number of Conservative women MPs and also to recognise the fact that although about 29% of our candidates are women, there are many very very good women on our priority list of candidates who haven't yet been selected and I want to give them the chance to serve in Parliament, so that's my current intention."

We feared this would happen.  David Cameron may be using the word "consider" now but we suspect that CCHQ has every intention of routinely using all-women shortlists from the new year.  Given that the reports of Thomas Legg and Christopher Kelly may produce many more MP retirements this is far from an academic reform.

It is clear that the half-women shortlists are not working but it's obvious why.  This quote is typical from ConHome feedback from Associations involved in using them:

"We have to have the same number of women on the shortlist even if three or four times as many men apply. To be one of the shortlisted men you have to be very special. To be one of the shortlisted women you do not. Every Association suspects that the members of gender-balanced shortlists are not of equal talent."

The fact is that Associations are adopting women in rough proportion to the number of women on the candidates list.  There are many more men on the candidates list and it is not particularly surprising therefore that more men are being selected.

All women shortlists from January would be an unacceptable departure from Conservative concepts of meritocracy and trusting people.  There are many good women on the candidates list and Associations would therefore have a choice of good candidates if all women shortlists are imposed... but there are many good men too.  It would be unfair and unmeritocratic for Associations to be denied to choose male candidates who have given so much to the Conservative Party over the years and have great talents to offer the country in the future. Quite simply Associations may not be able to choose the best persons for their Association.

All women shortlists would also be anti-localist. Why should we believe the Tory leadership on their promises to localise power if - yet again - they centralise power over candidate selection?

What would come next? All ethnic minority shortlists? All Muslim shortlists? If the party is becoming obsssed with quotas there is no logical or high principled reason why the answer to those questions would be "no".

All women shortlists are fundamentally unConservative and they have no place in a party pledged to meritocracy and localism. 

Tim Montgomerie and Jonathan Isaby

Robin Walker welcomes Ken Clarke to Worcester as he translates the messages from party conference into local campaigns on the ground

Each week a different PPC provides us with an insight into life as a candidate and gives us a flavour of their own campaign and interests. If you are a candidate and are keen to be featured, please email Jonathan Isaby.

This week’s diary is written by Robin Walker, who was selected in August 2006 for Worcester, a seat untouched by boundary changes where he requires a swing of 3.4% to overturn the Labour majority of 3,144. You can read more about his campaign to win back the seat once represented by his father, Peter Walker, on his website.

Sunday 11th October
Sunday is for resting, but I always try to spend it thinking through the lessons from the previous week’s campaign and assessing what can be done better in the week ahead. Canvassing over the weekend has shown that some people were inspired by what was said in Manchester at the party conference, but it was a salutary reminder that our here in the real world, many more had heard little or nothing from it. One of my main focuses for this week will be translating the great speeches and the strong policies from Manchester into campaigns relevant here in Worcester.

Monday 12th October
Like many candidates, I keep up a full-time “day-job”, working four days a week to make a living. Combining being a PPC with being a partner of a leading financial communications company, I’m lucky to have two jobs that I find fascinating, challenging and exciting. Being in business means I speak with more conviction and substance to a business audience, but work doesn’t let up just because it’s a busy time in politics and most of this week I am starting at 7am, leaving the office after 6pm.

In lunchbreaks and evenings I work on my next leaflet, bringing the themes from conference home to Worcester and picking up some of the highlights that will play well here.

"Getting Britain working" has real resonance as it's only too often nowadays that I meet people on the doorstep who have recently faced redundancy: they almost always want to work and want a government that will help them into work, rather than keeping them on benefits. Other key themes are providing care for the elderly, supporting our armed forces and restoring public finances, which sit alongside local campaigns for cancer care and opposing the Regional Spatial Strategy.

Affordable housing matters in Worcester. We need new houses to meet local need, but the Government’s top down plans call for tens of thousands in a short space of time - far more than the local need - including building on green fields and flood plains. They are undemocratic, and driven by unelected regional assemblies and Whitehall departments which seem to ignore local feedback. I’m campaigning for local choice and using brownfield sites to meet real local needs.

For this reason I was keen to attend a briefing for PPCs from the National Housing Federation, but unfortunately I have to cancel: my father is currently in hospital being treated for stomach cancer. Being part of a big family it is wonderful how everybody has rallied round, but there is no substitute for visiting personally. I decided that family must come first and sent my apologies. I have met with my local housing associations many times and have good relationships there, which are important when it comes to helping constituents living on their estates.