ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog

Neil Mahapatra selected for Sedgefield

Conservatives in Tony Blair's former constituency of Sedgefield have selected Neil Mahapatra to contest the seat at the next general election.

Aged 29, Neil studied Biological Sciences at Oxford, where he was President of the Union, before embarking on a career in investment banking. He was later a Fulbright scholar at Harvard, where he attained an MBA and was captain of the debating team. He now works for a family investment office specialising in making investments in fast-growing companies in Europe and Africa, whilst on the political front he has experience working for Andrew Mitchell and the shadow DfID team and has twice taken part in Project Umubano in Rwanda.

Sedgefield has been represented for Labour since the 2007 by-election by Phil Wilson, a former aide to Tony Blair, who won that contest with a majority of 6,956 over the Liberal Democrats. 

Neil said on his selection:

“It is an honour and a privilege to be selected for Sedgefield, and I will not let the Conservative supporters in the area down. As Tony Blair’s former haunt, the constituency has traditionally been a Labour heartland - that should change: at a time when the North East has been ignored by the Labour party (GDP is lower than anywhere else in the UK), it’s important to help voters in Sedgefield understand that the Conservatives represent a compassionate, viable alternative that can really focus on regenerating the area and creating jobs. I look forward to the campaign.”

Jonathan Isaby

A mixed bag of seven seats seeking a candidate

CCHQ has today advertised for a candidate in seven seats. None of the recent retirement seats are included, but there are two where candidates have recently stood down in seats within the top 200 targets.

The deadline for applications is June 29th.

In order of where they appear on the target list, they are:

Dudley North - Conservative target 106; notional Labour majority of 4,106 over the Conservatives. This is where John Perry recently stood down. Sitting MP - Ian Austin.

Walsall South - Conservative target 194; notional Labour majority of 7,910 over the Conservatives. This is where Thelma Matuk stood down. Sitting MP - Bruce George.

Edmonton - Conservative target 251; notional Labour majority of 10,312 over the Conservatives. Sitting MP - Andy Love.

Hartlepool - Conservative target 331; Labour majority of 7,478 over Lib Dems (Con in 3rd place). Sitting MP - Iain Wright.

Sedgefield - Conservative target 364; notional Labour majority of 18,198 over the Conservatives. Sitting MP - Phil Wilson.

Cardiff Central - Conservative target 394; Lib Dem majority of 5,593 over Labour (Con in 3rd place). Sitting MP - Jenny Willott.

Easington - Conservative target 413; notional Labour majority of 18,874 over Lib Dems (Con in 3rd place). Sitting MP - John Cummings (retiring).

(All target numbers and majorities based on the figures compiked by Profs Rallings and Thrasher of the University of Plymouth)

Jonathan Isaby

Graham Robb's final campaign video

Graham Robb has issued the following video ad as he reaches the final stage of his effort to be Sedgefield's next MP.  Click here to help Graham or for more information on his campaign. 

Watch our Sedgefield candidate debate his Labour and LibDem opponents

Click here to watch a video of our Sedgefield candidate Graham Robb debate with his principal opponents.

Click here to offer help to Graham in these last few days of the campaign.

Sedgefield by-election website

Click here to visit Graham Robb's official campaign site.  There's a video of David Cameron's visit to Tony Blair's vacated seat on this page.

William Hague launches Sedgefield campaign

Videos of William Hague launching candidate Graham Robb's campaign can be watched via two links - part one here and part two here.  In video one the Shadow Foreign Secretary gives an overview of the reasons for voting Conservative and in video two Graham Robb talks about his passion for the north east.

Graham Robb selected for Sedgefield

Earlier today we covered the selection of Tony Lit as our Ealing Southall candidate.  We have just learnt that Graham Robb has been selected as our candidate for the Sedgefield by-election.  The official website isn't yet live but Graham has a profile on MySpace.

Please sign up for Campaign Together if you haven't already done so.

Campaign Together

You may remember we linked to a CampaignTogether.com in the newslinks a month or so ago, it's a very useful tool for informing Conservative activists about local by-elections happening near them.

The Party has been fine-tuning it for a long time and following Piara Khabra's funeral yesterday it is now in full by-election mode for Ealing Southall and Sedgefield.

You can sign up for its newsletter here, or even better apply to be a member of its Volunteer Taskforce and get full access to the website.

Deputy Editor