By Jonathan Isaby
The party co-chairmen Baroness Warsi and Andrew Feldman have this week announced the new membership of the Board's Committee on Candidates.
Here's how they explained the changes in a message to senior party members:
A number of you have asked about our plans for organising the selection of candidates. As you know, the Boundary Commission will not complete its report and put in place new constituency boundaries until 2012 or 2013. That means that constituency Associations are unlikely to be able to hold any selections until 2012 or until those boundaries become clear.
In order to steer the Party through this unusual period, we have re-organised the Board’s Candidate Committee. It will be co-chaired by Baroness Browning and Carolyn Chisholm – a senior Party volunteer. The Committee will be responsible for setting the policies around selection, lists, PABs, and other candidate-related issues between now and the end of the Boundary Review. The full membership of the Candidates Committee is as follows:
- Baroness Browning (Co-Chairman, pictured)
- Carlyn Chisholm (Co-Chairman)
- Baroness Warsi
- Andrew Feldman
- Patrick McLoughlin MP
- Graham Brady MP (John Whittingdale MP to attend in his absence)
- Jeremy Middleton
- Paul Swaddle
- Rob Semple
- Stephen Gilbert
Timothy Kirkhope MEP will be invited to attend when matters which might affect selections to the European Parliament will be on the agenda. There will also be a sub-committee whose task it is to consider the implications of the Boundary Review and how they impact selections of candidates from 2012. This sub-committee will comprise John Whittingdale MP, Jeremy Middleton, Stephen Gilbert and Roger Pratt.
