ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog

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.

Labour's John Austin MP will quit at next election

John Austin is standing down from Erith & Thamesmead at the next General Election.  It's supposedly a relatively safe seat but is anything safe for Labour now?

The seat is one of eleven south London seats for which the Conservative Party will select as a group - as noted last week.

This statement from Mr Austin appears on ePolitix:

"It is unlikely that there will be a General Election before late next year or 2010; in either case I will then be over 65, and 70 by the end of the next Parliament.  At present I feel fit and well and I had thought of delaying a decision until I reach 65, but that would have been unfair on the Party and risk the possibility of being so close to an election that there might not be time for a full selection process if I chose to stand down then.  Erith & Thamesmead is one of the most challenging constituencies with one of the highest levels of casework and whilst I feel fit, active and enthusiastic now, I am not sure that I will want to be working a 7 day, 70 hour week when I am 70."

South London seats to select in one tranche

An "innovative" selection process for south London seats is being considered in which candidates interested in any of the eleven seats below have to to apply to them all as a group rather than just applying to the one they are most suited to:

• Bermondsey & Old Southwark
• Camberwell & Peckham      
• Dulwich & West Norwood
• Erith & Thamesmead
• Greenwich & Woolwich
• Lewisham Deptford
• Lewisham East
• Lewisham West and Penge
• Mitcham & Morden
• Streatham
• Vauxhall

Candidates must submit a single non-specific CV and be available to go to interviews for any of the seats throughout September, October and November.

The advantage of this process is not clear.