Yesterday I published the final six shortlist for Staffordshire South.
One of the six was NOT Nigel Hastilow.
Mr Hastilow - who has twice previously been forced to resign as a Conservative candidate - was one of the choices of the six South Staffs representatives who attended the obligatory shortlisting meeting at CCHQ. They eventually conceded that he would not appear on the shortlist after repeated objections from Eric Pickles.
Mr Hastilow has written at length about his treatment on his blog. He accuses Eric Pickles of dishonesty in blocking his candidacy and John Maples of being "particularly obnoxious". Hastilow alleges that Mr Maples told him that he'd be a fine candidate but did nothing to support him in the shortlisting meeting. Mrs Hastilow was Mr Maples' secretary until she resigned in protest at her husband's treatment.
Mr Hastilow has embarrassed the party in the past by praising Enoch Powell. That led to his resignation in 2007 as Tory candidate for Halesowen and Rowley Regis. Years earlier he had to resign as remained the party's Edgbaston candidate for despite using a website to make critical remarks of then Tory leader, William Hague.
I've had Mr Hastilow's account of the meeting at CCHQ independently verified. I 100% understand why CCHQ would not want a controversial character being readopted but they should have removed Mr Hastilow from the candidates list and not given him false hope. There is a dishonesty in keeping him on the candidates list, John Maples telling him that he'd be a good MP but then blocking his candidacy when a local Association nominates him.
CCHQ declined to comment this evening.
Tim Montgomerie
James Morris, Director of Localis and an occasional ConservativeHome contributor (see here and here) was adopted yesterday evening for the seat vacated by Nigel Hastilow. Mr Hastilow resigned after saying that Enoch Powell was partly right about immigration.
James faces a projected Labour majority of 4,140. We wish him every success in overturning it.
Nigel Hastilow had to resign as Tory candidate for Halesowen and Rowley Regis last November after implying that Enoch Powell was right about immigration.
Mr Hastilow has returned to the subject in an article for The Sunday Telegraph to promote his forthcoming book.
In many ways, he writes, Powell was right:
"Powell remains the only nationally known politician to have had the courage to question an immigration policy which was moderately under control 40 years ago, but certainly is not any more. He was right to argue that towns and cities were changing before people's eyes as a result of immigration and that those who lived in them had never been consulted. That, surely, is the most pertinent point of all. Whatever the accuracy of Powell's predictions, and however strong his language, his main argument was that the country was "undergoing the total transformation to which there is no parallel in a thousand years of English history". That is more true today than it was four decades ago. The level of immigration in the intervening years has been higher than Powell foresaw; the consequences are more far-reaching. One of the most obvious is the demand for land, infrastructure and housing. Across Britain, local battles are taking place over plans to build three million more houses to accommodate our ever-expanding population."
He accuses mainstream politicians of a "conspiracy of silence" on the issue of immigration:
"For many politicians, immigration is the subject which dare not speak its name. That's why so many people feel betrayed. Their elected representatives refuse to articulate the voters' concerns with anything approximating honesty. The conspiracy of silence among mainstream politicians is calculated to drive decent men and women into the arms of extremists. The BNP is bound to flourish when anyone who tries to discuss immigration openly is howled down by cries of "racist"."
The Birmingham Post - the newspaper that Nigel Hastilow used to edit - has turned on Mr Hastilow today in a front-page leader, signed by current Editor Marc Reeves.
Highlights of the leader:
"Next year marks the 40th anniversary of Enoch Powell's infamous Rivers of Blood speech, delivered in Birmingham, in which the Tory front-bencher railed against immigration and repeated a constituent's forecast that in Britain by 1988 "the black man will have the whip hand over the white man".
Powell's inflammatory language - he told of the last white woman left living in a street in Wolverhampton whose life was made a misery by immigrant families and their children whom he described as "charming, wide-grinning piccaninnies" apt to chant "racialist" at her - shocked Conservative Party leader Ted Heath and Powell was promptly sacked from the shadow Cabinet...
Not only were Mr Hastilow's remarks severely embarrassing to the Conservative Party, which has been steadily repositioning itself as a party of modern liberal-Toryism, his comments were also out of step with the multi-cultural West Midlands where, in the main, immigration is not a divisive issue...
it is clear that Enoch Powell's apocalyptic vision, in which immigration would lead Britain to "heap up its own funeral pyre", has not come to pass. To suggest, as Mr Hastilow does, almost casually, that Enoch was right is as dangerous as it is inaccurate. Proof, if it were needed, of Powell's legacy can be found by typing "Rivers of Blood" into any internet search engine. Close to the top of hundreds of thousands of entries will be the website of the National Front, which carries the speech in full alongside an explanation that Mr Powell was "sacked for telling the truth".
Read Mr Reeves' words in full here.
Nigel Hastilow wrote for yesterday's Express & Star. He offered his reflections on recent events. A scan of the full article is published at the bottom of this post (click on it to enlarge) but here are a few key sections:
"Caroline, the Chairman of the party, didn't mince her words. She was not happy. My political career was on the line."
"I turned the phone off and tried to enjoy a fireworks display with, among others, a very senior Conservative. They said they agreed with everything I'd said; they were just very glad it was me saying it, not them."
A very senior Conservative, eh?
On that meeting with Caroline Spelman:
"Caroline herself was charming. She explained how sensitive the immigration issue was and how dangerous it was for the party to be considered racist... I explained I had not written about race but about numbers... Then she cut to the chase. My political career would survive if I signed a press release drawn up by the party's chief spin doctor, Andy Coulson. It included this sentence: "Although I did not - and do not - support Enoch Powell's 'Rivers of Blood' comments, I accept that some of the wording of my column was incredibly stupid."... I was also required to submit any future articles for the Express & Star (or anywhere else) to the Conservative campaign headquarters before submitting them to the editor. It was this, even more that the "incredibly stupid" line, that I couldn't stomach."
"I am surprised the Conservative Party is so intimidated by the BBC and "The Observer" that it must toe the metropolitan line at all costs. But that's apparently how politics works these days."
I am grateful to David Cooper for sending me a scan of the full article that caused Nigel Hastilow to resign yesterday as the Tory candidate for Halesowen and Rowley Regis. What is clear is that Mr Hastilow did not say that Enoch Powell was right about everything. What he said was that Powell was right to say that "uncontrolled immigration" would change our country irrevocably.
Read his full remarks on his blog, including "it's not about race, it's about numbers".
Click on the scan to enlarge it. [I hope to improve the image quality later].
4.15pm: With thanks to Martin Wright, here is a link to the article.
Over his comments on immigration, CCHQ press release:
"I am very sorry that any remarks of mine have undermined the progress David Cameron has made on the issue of immigration, as on so many other issues. I have been here once before when William Hague was party leader and I have no wish to go there again.
So, with regret and my continuing support for the future, I hereby tender my resignation as parliamentary candidate for Halesowen and Rowley Regis. I thank my friends in the constituency association for their support."
A Conservative spokesman said: "We have accepted Mr Hastilow's resignation and wish him well for the future."
Deputy Editor's note: "Political realities made this resignation understandable but, for me, it's very disappointing. Most of the blame belongs to the media (particularly the BBC and the Observer) for giving Labour's press team the scalp they wanted all too easily. There was nothing racist in what Hastilow said. Fact. Is it completely naive to wonder if the Party could have stood its ground? It would be interesting to hear Osborne or Spelman spell out exactly how they disagreed with his comments. Political correctness triumphed over common sense with Patrick Mercer's article on the army and with the Catholic adoption agencies issue, and it will continue to do so until a senior figure has the courage of their convictions to challenge it. I suspect they will find far more support for such a stance than they realise. In this case - only one side of the argument was heard so I'm afraid all that some voters will remember from this episode will be that the Conservatives had to ditch some candidate for letting his racism show."
4.40pm: Ben Brogan is reporting that Mr Hastilow has now added to his officially released statement: "They wanted me to issue a statement apologising and I don't feel I had anything to apologise for. If I had said sorry I could have stayed on, but I am not sorry. I have definitely not said anything racist." Don't be surprised if Mr Hastilow returns to fight for another party. He knows that he is finished within the Conservative Party. ConservativeHome knows that UKIP, for example, is seeking to recruit 'Thatcherites' removed from the candidates' list or weren't A-listed.
7.45pm: James Forsyth makes the good point that this Hastilow affair has completely obscured the scandalous misuse of parliamentary allowances by Labour MPs, including Cabinet minister Ruth Kelly. Guess which story is dominating at the BBC...
That's right: Kellygate doesn't get a mention on BBC Online's main news page.
"When you ask most people in the Black Country what the single biggest problem facing the country is, most say immigration. Many insist: 'Enoch Powell was right'. Enoch, once MP for Wolverhampton South-West, was sacked from the Conservative front bench and marginalised politically for his 1968 'rivers of blood' speech, warning that uncontrolled immigration would change our country irrevocably. He was right. It has changed dramatically."
"...They have more or less given up complaining about the way we roll out the red carpet for foreigners while leaving the locals to fend for themselves."
These are some of the words penned by Nigel Hastilow for Wolverhampton's Express & Star. Mr Hastilow, the Tory candidate for Halesowen and Rowley Regis, has been summoned to see Party Chairman Caroline Spelman MP later today to explain his remarks.
Mr Hastilow's remarks will only add to his reputation as a loose cannon. When our candidate for Birmingham Edgbaston during the 1997-2001 parliament a piece on his website caused substantial embarrassment for William Hague. Tony Blair quoted it at PMQs.
He has also written that the Guantanamo facility "reduces every nation which connives in its existence to the same low level as the vile terrorists it purports to defend us from."
10.45am update:
Speaking on Sunday AM the Shadow Chancellor refused to be drawn on what action, if any, should be taken against Mr Hastilow. He said that he did not want to pre-judge the candidate's meeting with Caroline Spelman - due later today. Mr Osborne did say that it was important for all public figures to approach these subjects in a "reasonable way" and use "moderate" language. He criticised Gordon Brown's "British jobs for British workers" slogan as "particularly nasty" and "trying to play to a particular court". Shadow Home Secretary Davis has called the remarks "very unwise" and that it would be "very sensible" for Mr Hastilow to withdraw his article.
Earlier on Sunday AM, Labour's Peter Hain said that the remarks exposed the Conservative Party's "racist underbelly".
2pm: Labour MP Tom Watson reveals that Nigel Hastilow needs to clean up the threads on his blog, too.
Our 2001 candidate in Birmingham Edgbaston has been selected for Halesowen and Rowley Regis. Mr Hastilow needs to overturn a projected Labour majority of 4,140.
Nigel Hastilow is a blogger and offers some strong views in his regular postings. Here's one of them from last Wednesday:
"No doubt most Guantanamo prisoners are terrorists. But if that’s the case, prove it. Bring them to trial – in a reputable jurisdiction, not a kangaroo court set up and run by the US military. Charge them in public. Give them decent legal representation. Let the case against them – and the case for the defence – be heard. Let justice be done and let it be seen to be done. Justly, openly, fairly. Until we insist on an end to arbitrary imprisonment without trial of this kind we are no better than the Iranians who captured our sailors and detained them illegally, to the outrage of an entire nation. You can’t fight wars and pretend to support the self-appointed world policeman of the United States and retain any fig leaf of respectability if you behave with a complete lack of respect for the basic demands of legality and justice. Guantanamo Bay reduces every nation which connives in its existence to the same low level as the vile terrorists it purports to defend us from."
He'll need to keep his blog under control if he's to avoid the bad publicity he caused William Hague when he was last a candidate.
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