Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Revealed: Tory Central Office "watch-list" of awkward PPCs and associations

Michael Crick of Newsnight has obtained the minutes of a Tory Central Office meeting which reveals that there is a special "watch-list" of Tory PPCs who "have the potential to embarrass the party". Central Office high command are keeping an eye on them with the option of de-selection if necessary. They are also worried about "awkward associations".

The Conservative Party high command is so worried about some of David Cameron's Parliamentary candidates that they've started holding meetings every two weeks to monitor what they call a "watch-list" of those "have the potential to embarrass the Party".
This is revealed in the minutes - leaked to Newsnight (
download them here (pdf)) - of a meeting of senior national officials - the party's deputy chairmen and vice chairmen - held on 28 October last year.
The minutes say:
"Care needs to be taken over the candidates that have the potential to embarrass the Party - there will now be a fortnightly meeting to assess the watch-list of candidates, and the reasons they are on the list needs to be taken into consideration."
And the document shows that a Conservative Central Office official has even been appointed to keep a close eye on what these potential trouble-makers get up to:
"The public output e.g. blogs, websites, press releases of candidates will [sic] now to be monitored by a new member of the CRD team," the minutes read. "Let JM or Stephen Gilbert know if there are any problems with candidates - de-selection should be the last option." [JM is probably John Maples MP, the Deputy Chairman in charge of candidates.]
The minutes make it clear, however, that Central Office thinks that local associations are often a bigger problem than individual candidates. "But there is nothing to deal with the awkward associations - senior volunteers to help?"
And the party is taking measures to keep their potential candidates on message, even before they have been elected, according to the leaked report - by arranging for candidates to meet the Chief Whip at Westminster, Patrick McLoughlin:
"The Chief [Whip] is keen to meet with the candidates so they can get used to being line-managed by the Whips' Office."

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