Tories ‘must stop selecting closet Lib Dem’ candidates
‘If you’re the sort of person who walks on by when you see someone needing help, don’t apply’
THE Conservatives must select more people with “traditional Tory values” rather than “closet Liberal Democrats”, according to the MP who has been put in charge of the party’s candidate selection process.
Boris Johnson this week handpicked Sir Mike Penning, the MP for Hemel Hempstead, to overhaul the system amid fears that too many “wets” are making it through open primaries in which voters can take part even if they do not support the Conservatives.
On Wednesday he was announced by Oliver Dowden, the party chairman, as the new vice-chairman for candidates.
Hinting that the open primaries could be scrapped, Sir Mike said: “The focus will be on ensuring we have the best possible candidates, united in their commitment to Conservative values.
“We do need to make sure that we have got a rigorous selection process that considers people, not on the basis of their background, but the strength of their traditional Tory values and life experience.
“We cannot carry on with a system which has, at times, simply let in closet Liberal Democrats. I’ve got nothing against Lib Dems but they have got no place in the Tory party.”
In 2009, Sarah Wollaston, a GP, was selected as the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Totnes in Devon after more than 16,000 voters – most of whom were not party members – took part in Britain’s first full open primary.
She beat Sara Randall Johnson, the Conservative leader of East Devon district council, who got 5,495 votes, and
Torbay mayor Nick Bye, also a Conservative, who got 3,088 votes.
Yet, once she was elected to Parliament, Dr Wollaston proved to be a thorn in the Government’s side, rebelling over Brexit and defecting to Change UK in February 2019. Four months later, she quit the party to sit as an independent MP. In August 2019, she joined the Liberal Democrats but lost her seat in the 2019 general election.
Concerns have also been raised about the 2019 intake after Christian Wakeford, who was elected as the Conservative MP for Bury South with a 0.8 per cent majority, crossed the floor to Labour in January. He had been a Tory party councillor since 2013 but defected amid allegations of blackmail and bullying by Conservative whips. Partygate also prompted a rebellion among the so-called “pork pie plotters”, a group of new MPs critical of Mr Johnson.
Sir Mike, 64, who describes himself as a “comprehensively educated Essex boy”, had a career in the Army and as a fireman before winning his seat in 2005.
He said: “I’m not exactly your archetypal politician and certainly not what the average person thinks of when the word ‘Tory’ springs to mind. The closest I ever got to Eton was playing Slough at rugby. But one of the reasons I came into politics was to show that people like me can be elected to Parliament.
“The Tory party could arguably do with some more firemen – or more people who have had a life before politics. I have been made redundant and have been in negative equity.
“You don’t have to have personally experienced hard times, but it does give you an understanding of what many people are going through. If you’re the sort of person who walks on by when you see someone needing help, don’t apply.
“To break the mould of elitism in the Conservative Party we need a mix of people. People like me, and people like the Prime Minister, because he also has an ability to understand what the voters want even though our childhoods were poles apart.
“When I told Boris that I thought the party’s candidate selection procedure could do with some improvement, I didn’t expect him to call my bluff and put me in charge of it.”