Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Cameron strong-arms local Henley Conservative party over candidate selection

BBC South Today (Peter Henley reporting from.....Thame - chicken!) have reported this evening that the Liberal Democrats in Henley have made a flying start with our by-election campaign. Here's the video report.

The report also says that David Cameron has strong-armed the local constituency over the way they choose their candidate. Mark Pack explains:

The background is that the local party had a timetable it wanted to follow for selecting their candidate, including the use of an open primary. Conservative Central Office tried to talk them out of both, sending John Maples to tell them what to do. According to a well-placed eye-witness John Maples’s pleas were rebuffed and David Cameron then had to meet personally with the local party to get it to fall into line.

On BBC Radio Oxford this morning the local party chair, John Walsh, confirmed that the local party had been “firmly told” what to do.

The Conservative selection is now taking place on Friday night.

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