ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog

More UKIP chaos as leader Lord Pearson urges people in three Somerset constituencies to vote Conservative and not for the nominated UKIP candidates

I wrote last weekend about the chaos of where UKIP was and wasn't fielding candidates.

Today, the party's strategy appears to have descended further into farce, with the BBC reporting  that their leader, Lord Pearson, has written to a local Somerset newspaper telling people to back the Conservative candidates in Wells, Taunton Deane and Somerton & Frome - namely David Heathcoat-Amory, Mark Formosa and Annunziata Rees-Mogg.

It has been clear for a very long time that all three have robust views on the EU, so why on earth UKIP felt it was in any way advantageous to the eurosceptic cause to oppose them, I don't know - especially as they all have their main opposition as Liberal Democrats, the most federalist party of them all.

However, it is beginning to become academic now, since nominations have closed and it is too late for the candidates to withdraw, not least because postal votes have already been sent out - and the UKIP candidates on the ground seem at odds with their leadership in any case.

Jonathan Isaby

Are double-barrelled names a problem for Tory candidates?

The Mail on Sunday reports that David Cameron thinks they might be.

The Conservative leader jokingly encouraged Annunziata Rees-Mogg (our Somerton & Frome candidate who recently wrote a diary for ConHome), to change her double-barrelled name to Nancy Mogg:

"Mr Cameron told her: ‘Wouldn’t it be easier all round if you shortened it to Nancy Mogg?’ Ms Rees-Mogg told him she preferred the name she was born with – in full. ‘But Nancy is a lovely name, I called my daughter Nancy,’ he protested. Ms Rees-Mogg would not budge. ‘Nancy Mogg may be shorter but I would rather remain Annunziata Rees-Mogg,’ she replied."

The MoS continues:

"Ms Rees-Mogg’s Old Etonian brother, Jacob Rees-Mogg, 40 – who famously brought his nanny to accompany him on the campaign trail and wears a suit on the beach – is the party’s prospective member for North East Somerset, next door to his sister’s constituency. It is believed Jacob has so far decided against becoming Jake Mogg."

The Sunday newspaper notes that Brighton Kemptown's Simon Radford-Kirby (brought up in a council house) has shortened his name to a simpler Simon Kirby but without pressure from CCHQ.

Our always independently-minded candidate for Chippenham has gone in the other direction. Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones was once just Wilfred Jones!

Tim Montgomerie

Eric Pickles is bullish about the party's chances of "love-bombing" the Liberal Democrats out of swathes of the West Country

I have blogged before about how crucial it is that the Conservatives win a fair number of seats from the Liberal Democrats if David Cameron is to attain a simple majority in the Commons, let alone a robust one.

And no region has a bigger concentration of Liberal Democrat MPs than the South West, where seats held by the Lib Dems account for no fewer than 10% of the seats on the Conservative Party's national top 120 target list, which are as follows (NB some are newly created seats notionally held by the Lib Dems):

6. Cheltenham
11. Somerton and Frome
29. Taunton Deane
43. Chippenham
57. Torbay
63. Cornwall North
86. Truro and Falmouth
97. Camborne and Redruth
101. Newton Abbot
102. Devon North
112. Cornwall South East
119. St Austell and Newquay 

So it is good to read this piece by Michael Savage in this morning's Independent, which shows how seriously the party is taking the campaign against the Lib Dems in the region.

Of course, the most recent county council election results across Somerset, Devon and Cornwall all give cause for Conservatives to be in good heart in these counties - and Savage reports that the Conservatives "surprised themselves with the extent of their progress" at the May elections.

However, Lib Dem MPs - without the burden of being in government or anywhere near it - are able to distance themselves from policy decisions on national issues and concentrate on being glorified social workers in their constituencies.

Diary of a PPC: Annunziata Rees-Mogg (Somerton and Frome)

Each week a different PPC provides us with an insight into life as a candidate and gives us a flavour of their own campaign and interests. If you are a candidate and are keen to be featured, please email Jonathan Isaby.

This week's diary is written by Annunziata Rees-Mogg, candidate for Somerton and Frome in Somerset. The seat was gained in 1997 by the Liberal Democrat, David Heath, who has held it with a three-figure majority ever since. With boundary changes coming in at the next election, Annunziata has to overturn a notional Lib Dem majority of 595 in order to gain the seat, which will entail achieving a swing of less than 1%. Annunziata is a freelance journalist who fought Abervaon at the last general election. She was selected at an open primary in October 2006.

There is nothing like starting with a cliché - so a week might be a long time in politics but it’s a few seconds in the travails of a Parliamentary candidate. As I sit in the Somerset sunshine reflecting back on the last week it is amazing how quickly it has flown by.

Monday 6th April

Monday is never my most exciting day, so I’ll keep it brief. In the morning I speak to my constituency office and decide on what events - past and future - we are going to use as press stories. Spend the rest of the day writing up press releases before heading off to see a couple of friends in the evening. The highlight of the day was finishing Infidel, My Story by Aayan Hirsi Ali - a remarkable woman who used politics to fight for what she believed in. (Tip: no matter how many people tell you that Berocca is great, never take it at night unless you want to finish a particularly good book: it makes a double espresso seem like a sedative…)

Tuesday 7th April

Yet more admin. Normally my weekdays would be stuffed with political meetings but as Parliament is on recess it is much quieter and I take the opportunity to reply to various e-mails from voters in Somerton & Frome. Never know what to expect, today I had a query from an ex-soldier who was based in Palestine when Israel was created, asking for an update on my views of the situation in the Middle East post the Israeli elections; another on an alleged planning permission scam; mixed in with the usual fears about local schools, health services and the state of the economy. Muse briefly on how many fewer people are mentioning the environment since the credit crunch began. In Somerset we are fortunate to have a low unemployment rate, but job insecurity is rife and many people are working fewer days or hours a week - let alone all the pensioners whose savings now reap scant rewards. There is a huge hidden toll in the official figures. Get an e-mail from Shadow Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt agreeing to receive a petition that I am running with local pubs to help save their businesses. They will be delighted to find out they can come up to Westminster to represent Somerset pubs.

Another Rees-Mogg selected (for Somerton and Frome)

Annunziata Rees-Mogg has been selected tonight for Somerton and Frome.  Somerset looks set to become something of a Rees-Moggdom if things go the Tory way.  Her brother Jacob Rees-Mogg was adopted for NE Somerset in late July.  S&F was held by the LibDems by 812 votes at the last General Election.