Towards the end of February, I reported the decision of Stafford Conservative Association’s executive committee to deselect Theo Clarke…which came in the wake of Weald of Kent’s decision not to adopt Damian Green…which itself came in that of Hastings and Rye’s to deselect Sally-Ann Hart…
…and I raised the possibility of a wave of deselections of sitting Tory MPs. Considering what’s happened since, I must now de-raise it.
First, six days ago, came the news that Clarke had won a ballot of her Association to be re-adopted. So the Stafford Executive’s decision has been overturned.
Second, at about the same time, Hart won a similar ballot “by an overwhelming majority”, according to Sussex World. It reports Rob Lee, the “new chairman of Hastings and Rye Conservative Association” saying that he is “delighted to see the overwhelming support for Sally-Ann.
Finally, the news comes that Green has been selected by the Executive in Ashford – by, I gather, 20 votes to two, which is about as good as it gets.
Green was entitled under party rules to apply to Weald of Kent, a new seat in the county, because it contains part of his present Ashford one. The new Association rejected him largely, it seems, because it wanted a choice of candidate – and not to have to choose from a shortlist of one. Green’s One Nation politics appear to have had little to do with it (if anything).
All of which means that to date only one MP deselection by an Executive still stands – that of Richard Bacon in South Norfolk. Pendulums swing one way and then the other, but as I write it seems that Conservative MP deselections are fizzing out. Perhaps media outlets elsewhere will now be more cautious about claims of a pro-Boris Johnson deselection backlash from activists.