ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog

Former MP Angela (now Baroness) Browning to co-chair the Board's Committee on Candidates

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.

Russell George to stand in Montgomeryshire at the Welsh Assembly election

By Jonathan Isaby

Last night saw the latest Conservative candidate selected for next year's Welsh Assembly elections. At an open primary meeting attended by nearly 300 people, Russell George was chosen to contest Montgomeryshire - where the equivalent Westminster seat was gained at the general election from the Lib Dems by Glyn Davies for the Conservatives.

Russell has been a member of Powys County Council since 2008 and represents a ward in Newtown (in the Montgomeryshire constituency) where he has lived all his life. He also runs a small business in the town.

You can follow him on Twitter.

Three more Welsh Assembly candidates selected

By Jonathan Isaby

Further to my news this morning that Anthony Ridge-Newman has been chosen to fight Gower, I have been informed of the following three selections from recent days:

• Aberconwy: Janet Finch-Saunders
• Delyn: Cllr Matt Wright
• Vale of Glamorgan: Angela Jones-Evans

Selections are also imminent in Montgomeryshire, Newport West and Wrexham.

Anthony Ridge-Newman to contest Gower at the Welsh Assembly election

By Jonathan Isaby

Just catching up with the first of several selections from the last few days for next year's Welsh Assembly election with news that Anthony Ridge-Newman will contest Gower.

Having contested Ynys Mon at the general election, Anthony is seeking to unseat Labour AM Edwina Hart who has a majority of 1,192 and would be unseated on a swing of 4.4%.

He said on his selection:

"After a long and competitive selection process, I am very pleased to have been selected as the Conservative candidate for Gower.  The quality of candidates was extremely high, so I feel very humbled indeed.  I have a strong personal connection with Gower.  It has been a special place for my family and me for many many years.  I will live at the heart of our beautiful constituency and work very hard to earn the right to represent the people of Gower.  There is a lot of progress to be made and I intend to roll up my sleeves and get stuck in."

More on his website and blog.

The Isle of Wight should be allowed to remain a single parliamentary constituency

By Jonathan Isaby

Earlier in the month, Nick Clegg officially announced the plans to cut the number of parliamentary constituencies from 650 to 600 and, crucially, to equalise their size across the UK.

However, he did say that there would be two exceptions to that rule set in statute, meaning that two constituencies would remain as individual seats regardless of their electorates: the Western Isles and Orkney & Shetland - both of which have electorates considerably below the proposed quota (of around 76,000).

At the other end of the scale is the Isle of Wight, which has an electorate of about 110,000, and under the Government's plan, it would be split into two seats, one of which would be part of a mainland Hampshire constituency. This could mean ending up with most of the islands' voters in a seat with an electorate of 76,000 called Isle of Wight East whilst the rest of the island could be put into a seat called, for argument's sake, New Forest South and Isle of Wight West.

This plan has not gone down well on the island, and politicians of all parties are lending their voices to the "One Wight" campaign to demand that the island retains a single MP.

 As the island's current Conservative MP, Andrew Turner, explains:

“The Isle of Wight has a strong common identity, and has had for generations. We have always opposed attempts to divide us. We are one Island.  We strongly believe that ours is a unique situation in England and as such warrants separate consideration.  I believe that the current proposals are bad for democracy - there has been no shared Island-mainland constituency since 1832.  Since the news came out last week I have been overwhelmed by the number of people who have told me they are against these plans – so I am convinced we can put together a vigorous campaign against them."

Morris Barton, the former Liberal Democrat leader of the island's council, has given the campaign his backing:

“After the campaign to get a unitary authority for the Isle of Wight it seems counter-productive to now think about splitting it into two constituencies, which would nullify the Island’s independence. I am supporting this campaign.”

And the Labour candidate at the last election, Mark Chiverton, is also on board:

“The Isle of Wight is a unique place and needs to be speaking with one voice.”

The Isle of Wight County Press is already backing the campaign, as is Isle of Wight Radio - and I too am happy to express my support.

Islands are indeed unique communities and I believe Nick Clegg was right to identify those two Scottish island exceptions to the proposed rules about constituency size. However, the argument for allowing the Isle of Wight to remain a single seat is even more compelling, if that is what the islanders want: whereas the Western Isles and Orkney & Shetland will still technically be over-represented in Parliament, the voters of the Isle of Wight would be consenting to effectively remain slightly under-represented - making the fabled cost of politics less per head than anywhere else in the country while they're at it.

All it will need is a simple line in the legislation to include the Isle of Wight alongside the Western Isles and Orkney and Shetland as exempt from the rules about electorate quotas. I hope the Government will see the logic and common sense in this move.

Jamie McGrigor selected to contest Argyll and Bute in the Scottish Parliament election

By Jonathan Isaby

Another candidate has been confirmed in place to fight next year's Scottish Parliament election.

Jamie McGrigor - an MSP elected under the party list for the Highlands and Islands since 1999 - has been selected again to contest his home seat of Argyll and Bute.

He beat former list MSP Dave Petrie for the nomination and said after his local Conservatives met in Inveraray to conduct the selection:

"As an experienced and long standing MSP for Highlands and Islands, I have a very good knowledge of Argyll and Bute and I fully understand the problems and opportunities facing the people living and working here.

"I am encouraged by the recent upswing in Conservative support but my wish is to represent all of the people of Argyll and Bute as their elected MSP. It has always been my wish to win my home seat as First Past the Post.

"I look forward to meeting as many Argyll and Bute people as possible during what promises to be a vigorous and exciting campaign in these challenging times."

He fought the constituency at the 2007 Scottish Parliament election (when the SNP gained it from the Liberal Democrats and McGrigor came third) as well as having fought the equivalent seat at the 2005 general election.

John Lamont MSP re-adopted for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire at next year's Scottish Parliament election

Further to this morning's news of candidates being selected for next year's Scottish Parliament election, I learn that John Lamont has been re-adopted for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire.

He wrested the seat from the Lib Dems in 2007 with a majority of 1,985 - and unsuccessfully contested Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk  at the general election.

He said on his re-adoption:

“I am greatly honoured to have been readopted. It has been a great privilege to have served the people of Roxburgh and Berwickshire during the last few years and I look forward to continuing to work hard on their behalf in the future.

“With the Scottish constituencies being enlarged, I now look forward to working hard on behalf of residents in Selkirk and the Ettrick and Yarrow valleys. The constituency might be larger, but my commitment to every community, no matter how small, will remain."

Jonathan Isaby

First six candidates selected for next year's Scottish Parliament elections

The first six Conservative candidates to be contesting constituency seats at next year's Scottish Parliament election have recently been selected. They are:

• Alex Johnstone MSP – Angus North and Mearns
• Gillian Dykes – Dumfriesshire
• Jackson Carlaw MSP – Eastwood
• Iain McGill – Edinburgh Central
• Gavin Brown MSP – Edinburgh Southern
• Elizabeth Smith MSP – Perthshire South and Kinross-shire

NB In the tags attached to the article the constituency names are marked with an asterisk, as will be the case over the coming year for all constituencies in both the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly. This is to differentiate them from constituencies for Westminster seats, some of which have the same or very similar names (if not the same boundaries).

Jonathan Isaby

How Aidan Burley won Cannock Chase on a swing of more than 14%

One of the most memorable results at this year's general election was that in Cannock Chase in Staffordshire, where a supposed Labour stronghold was gained by Aidan Burley for the Conservatives.

Aidan’s 14.02% swing, called in to me by Peter Botting at 4.21am on May 7th as the result was being declared at Cannock Leisure Centre, was called a "staggering result" by the BBC - and was the largest swing of any Conservative candidate to gain a seat from Labour.

Aidan turned a notional 9,227 Labour majority into a Conservative majority of 3,195 – making him one of the youngest of the new intake of Tory MPs, aged 31. 

Born in New Zealand to British parents, his family returned to the UK several months later and he was brought up and educated in Birmingham. He won the mock election at King Edward’s School, Edgbaston, for the Conservatives in 1997 and later helped run OUCA and the Union whilst he was studying at St John’s College, Oxford.

He went on to work with the Home Office and the NHS as a management consultant, and also worked for Philip Hammond and Nick Herbert when they were shadow ministers. He was also a Conservative Councillor in Hammersmith and Fulham, but stood down from his seat to concentrate on winning Cannock Chase.

He explains here how he managed that feat:

"I had an agent, the former candidate - Ian Collard, who believed in me and in victory from the beginning and I had an incredibly stubborn and demanding coach in Peter Botting who kept on pushing me and pushing me.

"At target seat position No. 198, and not even on the radar of Target Seat Funding, we were totally left to our own devices in terms of fundraising. We also have a relatively small association of modest means. So we raised our own money - lots of it - through events, auctions and donations. It was hard work and we spent everything we raised. This became easier after we were able to evidence momentum. The fundraising was arguably harder than the campaign.

"We had great literature, put together by Stephen Ion and written by a strident committee of 3 (Ian, Peter and myself, and approved by my girlfriend Helen – who looked at it from an ‘external’ i.e. non-political perspective!) that debated every word, picture, colour and layout.