Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Tories wait to choose candidate
Canterbury’s Conservative association admits it has little idea when the next parliamentary candidate for the city and Whitstable will be chosen.
The party’s autumn conference starts in Manchester on Sunday and the North Thanet association, which includes Herne Bay, has this week re-selected veteran Tory Sir Roger Gale to fight the seat.
But a successor for Sir Julian Brazier – who lost his long-held Canterbury seat to Labour’s Rosie Duffield in June – has yet to be chosen, or a decision made on whether Sir Julian will stand again.
Cllr Neil Baker, chairman of the Canterbury and Whitstable association, says members are still waiting for Conservative Campaign Headquarters to begin the process of advertising for seats.
Sir Julian Brazier was defeated at the June election by 187 votes after representing the constituency for 30 years.
“The quick answer to the question of what will happen next is that we don’t know and there are different circumstances at play when there is a sitting MP,” Cllr Baker said.
“I have no indication at all of timescales. I just assume it will tie in to when boundary changes are officially known.
“There’s word on that, but my gut feeling is the reduction from 650 MPS to 600 won’t happen, so the changes won’t be as major as they would have been.”