ConservativeHome's Seats & Candidates blog

A stock take of selection outcomes in Tory-held seats

Twenty seats have now selected candidates for seats where MPs have stepped down since the wave of retirements began:

1. John Glen for Salisbury, management consultant
2. Matthew Hancock for Suffolk West, Chief of Staff to George Osborne
3. Gavin Williamson for South Staffordshire, businessman
4. Kwasi Kwarteng for Spelthorne, journalist and writer
5. Jo Johnson for Orpington, journalist
6. Bob Stewart for Beckenham, former Army officer
7. Caroline Dinenage for Gosport, businesswoman and councillor
8. Fiona Bruce for Congleton, lawyer
9. Dr Daniel Poulter for Suffolk Central and Ipswich North, medical doctor
10. Dominic Raab for Esher & Walton, political chief of staff and former Foreign Officer lawyer
11. Claire Perry for Devizes, political adviser and former banker
12. Steve Baker for Wycombe, former RAF engineer
13. Rory Stewart for Penrith and the Border, former Army officer and diplomat
14. Liz Truss for SW Norfolk, think tank leader
15. Stephen Phillips for Sleaford and North Hykeham, barrister
16. Philip Lee for Bracknell, medical doctor
17. David Rutley for Macclesfield, businessman
18. Jonathan Lord for Woking, marketing consultant
19. Julian Smith for Skipton and Ripon, recruitment entrepreneur
20. Sarah Wollaston for Totnes, medical doctor.

25% of the adopted candidates in this tranche are women.

Four Tory-held seats are yet to select: Bromsgrove, Stratford-on-Avon, Suffolk Coastal and Surrey East.

I'm guessing we may still get three or four more retirements.

Tim Montgomerie

Four women, three lawyers, three doctors, two ex-military among those selected to replace thirteen retirees

By way of a little stock check we have had thirteen candidates selected to succeed MPs that have announced retirements in recent months:

1. Fiona Bruce for Congleton, lawyer
2. Dr Daniel Poulter for Suffolk Central and Ipswich North, medical doctor
3. Dominic Raab for Esher & Walton, political chief of staff and former Foreign Officer lawyer
4. Claire Perry for Devizes, political adviser and former banker
5. Steve Baker for Wycombe, former RAF engineer
6. Rory Stewart for Penrith and the Border, former Army officer and diplomat
7. Liz Truss for SW Norfolk, think tank leader
8. Stephen Phillips for Sleaford and North Hykeham, barrister
9. Philip Lee for Bracknell, medical doctor
10. David Rutley for Macclesfield, businessman
11. Jonathan Lord for Woking, marketing consultant
12. Julian Smith for Skipton and Ripon, recruitment entrepreneur
13. Sarah Wollaston for Totnes, medical doctor.

We are back at 30% for the proportion of women selected.

There are six plum seats yet to select: Beckenham, Bromsgrove, Gosport, Orpington, Spelthorne and Suffolk West.

Half-a-dozen more retirements are expected.  Perhaps more.

Tim Montgomerie

Recent run of male selections disappoints CCHQ

Although fifty to sixty Tory MPs are likely to be women in the event of a General Election victory, 85% of the last six months of selections have been of men.  More significantly, Saturday's adoption of another man - Hexham choosing Guy Opperman - follows a succession of other male adoptions in Tory-held or top target seats: Fylde choosing Mark Menzies, Nuneaton adopting Marcus Jones, Bournemouth West adopting Conor Burns, Perth and North Perthshire adopting Peter Lyburn, Halesowen and Rowley Regis adopting James Morris, Rochester and Strood re-adopting Mark Reckless, Westmorland & Lonsdale adopting Gareth McKeever.

The last woman to be selected in a top seat was Rebecca Harris for Castle Point at the start of July - a few days after James Brokenshire won the race for Old Bexley & Sidcup.

The Candidates' Department had hoped that intensive lobbying of Association Chairmen and compulsory shortlisting of women would have produced greater change. The Dept is reportedly disappointed because they do not believe that further/ tougher pro-women measures would be acceptable to Associations.

List of constituencies and Conservative MPs/PPCs

With the local elections almost upon us we thought it would be worthwhile providing a list of all of the Conservative Associations and their parliamentary spokesmen. By linking to the constituency and/or parliamentary spokesmen websites we hope to improve their search engine rankings when voters search for the constituency name or the name of the candidate/MP.

If you have a blog or website please feel free to copy the list below and reproduce it so as to increase their rankings even more.

Many thanks to David Webster for doing all of the hard work in compiling this list.

nnIn order to make this as useful and accurate a resource as possible please add a comment below or email us if you spot any errors or know of a website address or selected candidate that isn't yet included...

A

Aberavon – No candidate
Aberconwy – Guto Bebb
Aberdeen North – No candidate
Aberdeen South – Mark Jones
Aberdeenshire West and Kincardine – Alex Johnstone
Airdrie and Shotts – No candidate
Aldershot – Gerald Howarth MP
Aldridge-Brownhills – Richard Shepherd MP
Altrincham and Sale West – Graham Brady MP
Alyn and Deeside – Will Gallagher
Amber Valley – Nigel Mills
Angus – Alberto Costa
Arfon – No candidate
Argyll and Bute – Caroline Brodie
Arundel and South Downs – Nick Herbert MP
Ashfield – No candidate
Ashford – Damian Green MP
Ashton under Lyne – No candidate
Aylesbury – David Lidington MP
Ayr Carrick and Cumnock – No candidate
Ayrshire Central – Phil Gallie
Ayrshire North and Arran – Philip Lardner

Who has been selected so far?

Listed below are the parliamentary candidates selected by the Conservative Party since the General Election.  Any corrections or errors should be emailed to Tim and Sam please.

WOMEN CANDIDATES
Proportion of women selected of all candidates (71 of 255): 27.8%
Proportion of women selected since A-list (64 of 236): 27.1%
Proportion of women selected before A-list (7 of 19): 36.8%

ETHNIC MINORITY AND NON A-LIST CANDIDATES
Proportion of ethnic minority candidates selected of all candidates (13 of 255): 5.1%
Proportion of local or non-A-list candidates selected since A-list (44 of 95): 46.3%*

* This count and the identification of non-A-listers in italics was stopped after 95 selections because of the effective ending of the A-list.

CONTEXT
At the last General Election just 19% of target and Conservative held seats (where the former MP was retiring) had women candidates.  Just 11% of the 2005 intake were women.

All candidates in blue are men.  All in purple are women.

CANDIDATES SELECTED AFTER THE A-LIST
(the most recently reported selections start from the top.)

Last updated 11/04/08. Full A-list here.

1. Gerald Michaluk (Ochil and South Perthshire)
2. Toby Boutle (Ilford South)
3. Mark Spencer (Sherwood)
4. Laura Goodchild (Inverclyde)
5. Alistair Campbell (Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
6. Iain McGill (Edinburgh North and Leith)
7. Robert Oliver (Houghton and Sunderland South)
8. Lee Martin (Sunderland Central)
9. Gareth Hughes (Wrexham)
10. Helen Grant (Maidstone & The Weald)
11. Matthew Groves (Plymouth Moorview)
12. Mark Lloyd-Davies (Bristol South)
13. Adeela Shafi (Bristol East)
14. Nick Yarker (Bristol West)
15. Steve Barclay (North East Cambridgeshire)
16. Edward Legard (Darlington)
17. Chris Skidmore (Kingswood)
18. Chloe Smith (Norwich North)
19. Alberto Costa (Angus)
20. Hazel Noonan (Coventry North East)
21. Royston Smith (Southampton Itchen)
22. Ian Galletley (Stockton North)
23. Huw Merriman (North East Derbyshire)
24. Ian Cuthbert (Washington & Sunderland West)
25. Bob Dalrymple (Stirling)
26. Jeremy Moulton (Southampton Test)
27. Elly Jupp (Hayes & Harlington)
28. Richard Normington (Cambridge)
29. Jason Hadden (Croydon North)
30. Annesley Abercorn (Hazel Grove)
31. Nigel Huddleston (Luton South)
32. Simon Hoare (Cardiff South & Penarth)
33. Rene Kinzett (Swansea West)
34. Jeremy Brier (Luton)
35. Leah Fraser (Wallasey)
36. Mark Bowen (Feltham & Heston)
37. John Bell (Clywd South)
38. Andrea Stephenson (Linlithglow & East Falkirk)
39. Will Gallagher (Alyn & Deeside)
40. Ross Thompson (Gordon)
41. Stuart Penketh (Ellesmere Port & Neston)
42. Jim Ferguson (Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey)
43. Phillip Lardner (North Ayrshire & Arran)
44. Michael Veitch (East Lothian)
45. Alex Johnstone (West Aberdeenshire & Kincardine)
46. Derek Thomas (St Ives)
47. Mark Versallion (Stretford & Urmston)
48. Mark Jones (Aberdeen South)
49. Phil Gallie (Ayrshire Central)
50. David Potts (Edinburgh South West)
51. Stewart Geddes (Edinburgh West)
52. Martin McIntyre (Dunbartonshire West)
53. Trefor Jones (Ynys Mon)
54. Flick Drummond (Portsmouth South)
55. Oliver Colville (Plymouth Sutton)
56. Mark Nolan (Dunbartonshire East)
57. Neil Hudson (Edinburgh South)
58. Brenda Porter (Southport)
59. Nick Boles (Grantham & Stamford)
60. Antoinette Sandbach (Delyn)
61. Maria Hutchings (Eastleigh)
62. Stephen Mosley (Chester)
63. Peter Duncan (Dumfried & Galloway)
64. John Wilford (Wolverhampton North East)
65. Ken Wood (Wolverhampton South East)
66. Thelma Matuk (Walsall South)
67. Helen Clack (Walsall North)
68. Chris D Kelly (Dudley South)
69. John Perry (Dudley North)
70. Helen Baker (Bridgend)
71. Douglas Ross (Moray)
72. Chris Walker (Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk)
73. Simon Hart (Camarthen West & South Pembrokeshire)
74. Caroline Brodie (Argyll & Bute)
75. Jonathan Evans MEP (Cardiff North)
76. Matthew Williams (Newport West)
77. Matt Wright (Vale of Clywd)
78. Suzy Davies (Brecon & Radnorshire)
79. Dr Spencer Pitfield (Penistone & Stocksbridge)
80. Ben Gummer (Ipswich)
81. Byron Davies (Gower)
82. Guto Webb (Aberconwy)
83. Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan)
84. Alf Doran (Chorley)
85. Rowena Holland (Nottingham South)
86. Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire)
87. Matthew Riddle (Thornbury & Yale)
88. Jackie Doyle-Price (Thurrock)
89. Matthew Offord (Hendon)
90. Sian Flynn (Cornwall North)
91. Kevin Davis (Yeovil)
92. Peter Aldous (Waveney)
93. Graham Evans (Weaver Vale)
94. Kevin Hollinrake (Dewsbury)
95. Adrian Owens (West Lancs)
96. Ron Bell (Blackpool South)
97. Edward Timpson (Crewe & Nantwich)
98. Rehman Chishti (Gillingham & Rainham)
99. Rachel Joyce (Harrow West)
100. Philip Allott (Halifax)
101. Graham Robb (Sedgefield)
102. Tony Lit (Ealing Southall)
103. Alex Story (Wakefield)
104. Charlie Elphicke (Dover)
105. John Gough (Barrow & Furness)
106. Nigel Mills (Amber Valley)
107. Tim Archer (Poplar and Limehouse)
108. Ian Gibb (Ealing North)
109. Nigel Dawkins (Selly Oak)
110. Stephen Mold (Derby North)
111. Simon Jones (Dagenham & Rainham)
112. Helen Whately (Kingston and Surbiton)
113. Keely Rogers (Birmingham Northfield)
114. Nigel Hastilow (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) RESIGNED
115. Keith Girling (Bassetlaw)
116. Shaun Bailey (Hammersmith)
117. David Morris (Morecambe and Lunesdale)
118. Jessica Lee (Erewash)
119. Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley)
120. Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough)
121. Chris Whiteside (Copeland)
122. Julie Moody (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
123. David Mowat (Warrington South)
124. Angela Watkinson (Hornchurch and Upminster)
125. Matthew Lobley (Leeds NE)
126. Fabian Richter (Bath)
127. Deborah Thomas (Twickenham)
128. Ben Jeffreys (Cheadle)
129. Jill Skalla (Colchester)
130. Zac Goldsmith (Richmond Park)
131. Gary Ridley (Coventry NW)
132. Hannah Parker (Exeter)
133. John Woodward (Camborne Redruth)
134. Diana Coad (Slough)
135. James Wharton (Stockton South)
136. Simon Rouse (Nuneaton)
137. Daniel Byles (Warwickshire North)
138. Zahid Iqbal (Bradford West)
139. Eric Ollerenshaw (Lancaster and Fleetwood)
140. Jason McCartney (Colne Valley)
141. Chris White (Warwick and Leamington)
142. Neil Parish MEP (Tiverton and Honiton)
143. Damian Hinds (Hampshire East)
144. Paul Uppal (Wolverhampton SW)
145. Karl McCartney (Lincoln)
146. Owen Inskip (Kingswood)
147. Mark Clarke (Tooting)
148. Mark Pawsey (Rugby)
149. Jeff Clarke (Wirral South)
150. Jake Berry (Rossendale and Darwen)
151. Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell)
152. Philippa Stroud (Sutton and Cheam)
153. Susan Williams (Bolton West)
154. David Bull (Brighton Pavilion)
155. Kris Hopkins (Keighley)
156. Caroline Righton (St Austell and Newquay)
157. Jesse Norman (Hereford)
158. Chris Philp (Hampstead and Kilburn)
159. Paul Maynard (Blackpool North and Cleveleys) 
160. Mike Freer (Finchley & Golders Green)
161. Mary MacLeod (Brentford and Isleworth)
162. Anne-Marie Trevelyan (Berwick-upon-Tweed)
163. Amber Rudd (Hastings & Rye)
164. Wendy Morton (Tynemouth)
165. Margot James (Stourbridge)
166. Michael Ellis (Northampton North)
167. Bruce Laughton (Gedling)
168. John Stevenson (Carlisle)
169. Richard Graham (Gloucester)
170. Trevor Ivory (Norfolk North)
171. Anne-Marie Morris (Newton Abbot)
172. Stephen Metcalfe (East Thurrock and South Basildon)
173. Tracey Crouch (Chatham & Aylesford)
174. Julia Mulligan (Leeds NW)
175. Nick King (Mid Dorset and North Poole)
176. Simon Kirby (Brighton Kemptown)
177. Kevin Foster (Coventry South)
178. Stuart Andrew (Pudsey)
179. Bob Blackman (Harrow East)
180. Priti Patel (Witham)
181. Joanne Cash (Westminster North)
182. Anne McIntosh (Thirsk & Malton)
183. Andrew Bridgen (Leicestershire NW)
184. Deborah Dunleavy (Bolton NE)
185. Ian Oakley (Watford)
186. Philip J Milton (Devon North)
187. Mark Coote (Cheltenham)
188. Steve Brine (Winchester)
189. Stephen McPartland (Stevenage)
190. Heather Wheeler (Derbyshire South)
191. Tom Biggins (Telford)
192. Nicola Blackwood (Oxford West and Abingdon)
193. David Nuttall (Bury North)
194. George Hollingbery (Meon Valley)
195. Brandon Lewis (Great Yarmouth)
196. Charlotte Leslie (Bristol NW)
197. Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes)
198. Andrew Griffiths (Burton)
199. Andrew Percy (Brigg & Goole)
200. Sheryll Murray (South East Cornwall)
201. Gordon Henderson (Sittingbourne & Sheppey)
202. George Freeman (Mid-Norfolk)
203. Laura Sandys (Thanet South)
204. Gareth Johnson (Dartford)
205. Angie Bray (Ealing Central and Acton)
206. Annunziata Rees-Mogg (Somerton & Frome)
207. Neil Carmichael (Stroud)
208. Sarah Newton (Truro & Falmouth)
209. Louise Bagshawe (Corby)
210. Henry Smith (Crawley)
211. Jane Ellison (Battersea)
212. Esther McVey (Wirral West)
213. Richard Fuller (Bedford & Kempston)
214. Andrew Stephenson (Pendle)
215. Jeremy Lefroy (Stafford)
216. Debi Jones (Sefton Central)
217. Robin Walker (Worcester) 3,144 (Lab)
218. David Gold (Eltham) 3,276 (Lab)
219. Michelle Wiseman (Bury South) 8,912 (Lab)
220. Richard Drax (South Dorset) 1,812 (Lab)
221. Alok Sharma (Reading West) 4,980 (Lab)
222. Jacob Rees-Mogg (North East Somerset) 234 (C)
223. Mike Weatherley (Hove) 420 (Lab)
224. Anna Soubry (Broxtowe) 2,296 (Lab)
225. Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire) 2,475 (C)
226. Karen Bradley (Staffordshire Moorlands) 1,035 (C)
227. Damian Collins (Folkestone & Hythe) 11,680 (C)
228. Jason Sugarman (Lewes) 8,474 (LD)
229. Julian Sturdy (York Outer) 1,821 (LD)
230. Jack LoPresti (Filton and Bradley Stoke) 1,201 (C)
231. Chris Heaton-Harris MEP (Daventry)
232. Nigel Adams (Selby & Ainsty)
233. Andrea Leadsom (South Northamptonshire)
234. Pauline Latham (Mid-Derbyshire)
235. Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones (Chippenham)
236. Mel Stride (Central Devon)
237. Bob Neill (Bromley and Chislehurst)

CANDIDATES FAST-TRACKED BEFORE THE A-LIST
(Alphabetical by candidate surname)

1. Cllr Deirdre Alden (Birmingham Edgbaston)
2. Dr Ken Andrew (Carshalton & Wallington)
3. Cllr Richard Bell (Westmorland & Lonsdale) RESIGNED
4. Mark Bigley (Southport) RESIGNED
5. Cllr Andrew Bingham (High Peak)
6. Robert Buckland (South Swindon)
7. Richard Cook (East Renfrewshire)
8. Nick de Bois (Enfield North)
9. Mark Formosa (Taunton)
10. Lorraine Fullbrook (South Ribble)
11. Cllr Mark Garnier (Wyre Forest)
12. Robert Halfon (Harlow)
13. Karen Lumley (Redditch)
14. Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North)
15. Nicky Morgan (Loughborough)
16. Cllr Caroline Nokes (Romsey)
17. Paul Offer (City of Chester) RESIGNED
18. Christopher Pincher (Tamworth)
19. Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South West)
20. Justin Tomlinson (North Swindon)
21. Maggie Throup (Solihull)
22. Marcus Wood (Torbay)

Comments left on this thread (as with all comments on this 'Seats & Candidates site' site) will only be published after they have been approved by ConservativeHome's Editorial team.

30% of all selected candidates are women

Due to popular demand we finally updated our rolling list of who has been selected so far last week.

This affected the proportional statistics a little. Exactly 30% of the candidates listed are women, which compares to women being selected in 19% of target and held seats in 2005 and 11% of the 2005 intake being women. The number of ethnic minority candidates remains static.

Fifty to sixty Tory MPs would be women if David Cameron secures Commons majority

An analysis by ConservativeHome of those adopted as Tory candidates for the next General Election says that there would likely be fifty to sixty women Tory MPs if the Conservative Party formed a majority after the next General Election.

There are currently just 17 Conservative female MPs.

Although the Tory leadership has failed to deliver their ideal aim of half of Tory candidates being women there has been significant progress with women doing relatively better in the most winnable seats.

Although, for example, only 31% of all adopted candidates are women, 46% of the candidates (11) adopted for the 24 seats with notional Tory majorities are women.

The ratio deteriorates thereafter.  35% of candidates selected for the top twenty target seats are women but just 28% for the top 75 target seats.

Women most likely to be Tory MPs after the next General Election include Karen Bradley (Staffordshire Moorlands), Harriett Baldwin (West Worcestershire), Andrea Leadsom (South Northamptonshire) and Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North).

On current selections, half a dozen candidates from ethnic minorities are likely to enter Parliament as Tories - joining Adam Afriyie and Shailesh Vara.

Priti Patel (Witham) and Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) are the two "BME" candidates in the group of notionally Conservative seats.  Three BMEs have so far been selected for the top 75 seats: Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones (Chippenham), Zahid Iqbal (Bradford West) and Paul Uppal (Wolverhampton SW).  Six BMEs so far selected for top 150 seats: including Alok Sharma (Reading West), Mark Clarke (Tooting) and Shaun Bailey (Hammersmith).  The party also has hopes that Tony Lit may join the green benches as the unlikely new Tory MP for Ealing Southall after next Thursday.

ConservativeHome Comment: "Although David Cameron's A-list alienated many Conservative activists it has undoubtedly contributed to a significant increase in the number of women who would sit as MPs on the benches of a Tory government.  Many come from conventional Conservative backgrounds, however.  Most of the women selected appear to come from the law or the City.  Few have public or voluntary sector backgrounds.  The party has also yet to address the issues of financial exclusion.  The £41,000 average cost of becoming a Tory MP at the last General Election may deter excellent candidates with modest backgrounds from becoming an MP."

SCROLL DOWN FOR MORE STATS...

Proportion of women adopted dips to 33.6%

Since our previous update there have been 22 more recorded adoptions and the proportion of women selected has dipped from 34.8% to 33.6% (the high point was last December when the ratio hit 38.1%).  CCHQ will be relieved, however, that the number of women adopted has picked up again recently.  As the rolling record shows, after 17 male selections in a row, broken by Diana Coad's selection at Slough, 6 of the last 14 adoptions have been of women.  The next monthly report will introduce a new feature.  We will analyse not just the crude proportion of women and ethnic minorities being chosen but whether they are being selected in the most winnable seats.

The proportion of ethnic minority candidates rose very slightly over the last month - to 3.65%.

Men chosen in last nine selections

The last nine Conservative Associations to adopt have all chosen men.  Fourteen of the most recent seventeen selections (since ConservativeHome last updated its rolling list) have been of men.  This run of selections has cut the proportion of women selected since the last General Election from 38.1% to 34.8%.  The proportion of women selected in this parliament before introduction of the A-list is now slightly greater again than since the A-list was introduced. 

The proportion of local or non-A-list candidates selected since the introduction of the A-list is also down, but only very slightly, to 46.3%.  This number may overstate the proportion of non-A-listers selected, however, as ConservativeHome no longer tracks membership of the still secret 'Priority List'.  There may be some A-listers who have been adopted but who have not been identified as such (although CCHQ normally tell me when I fail to do so!).

Paul Uppal's Friday evening victory in Wolverhampton SW does lift the proportion of ethnic minority candidates to  3.5%.

CCHQ had hoped that at least one of the two 'safe' seats where Tory MPs are retiring - Hampshire East and Tiverton and Honiton - would select a woman.  Hampshire East has already chosen Damian Hinds.  Neil Parish and Edward Heathcoat-Amory are the favourites to succeed Angela Browning in her Devon seat with its 11,051 majority.

A-list succeeding in increasing number of female candidates

The picture above was taken at the first anniversary celebration of Women2Win.  Pictured from left to right are Tory candidates Jane Ellison, Deborah Dunleavy, Pauline Latham, Priti Patel, David Cameron, Andrea Leadsom, Joanne Cash, Louise Bagshawe, Harriett Baldwin and Lorraine Fulbrook.

The latest update of ConservativeHome's rolling record of selected candidates gives W2W more to celebrate.  The proportion of women selected overall (since CH's previous update) has risen from 35.1% to 38.1%.   Of the last 22 selections 45.6% have been women.  39.0%  of all selections since the introduction of the A-list have been women and women appear to be faring particularly well in the more marginal seats.  Male A-listers are doing surprisingly badly because the proportion of non-A-listers winning selection is also up.  46.8% of all selected candidates are not on the A-list (although some may not have been correctly identified as A-list members because of continuing CCHQ secrecy).

Non A-listers continue to win selection battles

Overnight ConservativeHome has updated its rolling record of selected candidates.  The list hadn't been updated since 2nd November - since when sixteen candidates have been selected:

• Five of the sixteen selected were women - slightly reducing the overall percentage of women selected so far from 36.1% to 35.1%.
• The number of ethnic minority candidates dropped again to 2.6% (from 3.3%).  Priti Patel's involvement in tonight's Witham selection offers the most immediate hope of improving that statistic and easing the controversy following Ali Miraj's recent intervention.
• Nine of the sixteen candidates are identified as non-A-listers (although some may not have been correctly identified as A-list members) - increasing the proportion of non-A-listers selected from 41.0% to 45.6%.

Saturday 9th December will see many candidates gather together at Westminster Central Hall.  John Maples MP - the new head of candidates at CCHQ - will be there all day.  He, Shireen Ritchie and Gareth Fox will run 'career surgeries' throughout the day for individual candidates.  Head of party policy Oliver Letwin, Chairman Francis Maude, Theresa May, CCHQ campaigns director George Bridges and Friends of the Earth's Tony Juniper will all give policy/ strategy presentations.  It is the first serious attempt since the introduction of the A-list for all candidates to receive a full briefing on party and candidate issues.  Credit must go to David Senior and Mary Macleod of the Candidates' Association for organising it.  A pdf leaflet for the conference can be downloaded here.