Just over a month ago, I reported that Theo Clarke, the MP for Stafford, had been deselected as a Parliamentary candidate by the executive committee of her local Association.
Her statement at the time suggested that her absence on maternity leave was a trigger for the decision. The Executive later denied that this had been the case. She also said at the time that she would put her case to a ballot of the Association’s membership as a whole.
The ballot has been cast and Clarke has tweeted that she’s been readopted – so the Executive’s decision has therefore been overturned.
As William Atkinson wrote on this site in the wake of the Weald of Kent Association’s Executive voting not to adopt Damian Green, claims of a purge by right-of-party-centre activists of left-of-party-centre MPs are greatly exaggerated. Only three Conservative MPs to date have been subject to deselection votes.
The first, Sally-Anne Hart in Hastings and Rye, is herself usually viewed as right-of-party centre. Clark is not – but now her Association as a whole has voted to reinstate her.
And the main reason for the Weald of Kent decision is that it will be a new seat, and has a fledgling Association which wanted a choice of candidates for the next election, rather than a selection with a shortlist of one. The third deselection vote to date has been Richard Bacon’s in South Norfolk over “a lack of visible engagement”. (Again, an Association Executive’s decision.)
Perhaps some of the heated commentary about a pro-Boris Johnson backlash led by the Conservative Democratic Organisation will now cool down a bit.
Here is Clarke’s statement –
