Westminster is on fire with speculation about Tory/Ukip joint candidates after The Spectator’s exclusive this afternoon. But would it really work? CCHQ has already rejected the idea, with a spokesman telling Coffee House: ‘It’s not party policy and it’s not going to happen.’
Currently, joint candidates can’t officially stand without the sign-off from Labour or Conservative head office. The national nominating officers from both parties would have to co-sign an application to register a joint description. Although in practice the Conservative party gives someone in each local association permission to nominate Conservative candidates, they don’t give other people permission to change the party’s registered descriptions, which this arrangement with Ukip would do. Only then would it be possible for a candidate to stand in any election officially endorsed by both parties.
Unless the national Conservative party decide to register a joint description with Ukip, there is no joint description that Nadine Dorries can apply to use, even if she has Ukip’s endorsement. The best she can hope for under the current rules is an informal endorsement. If a candidate wanted to share a description and logo on the ballot paper — which is now legal according to Philip Cowley — both central offices have to be on board.
The other, bigger barrier is neither mainstream party is interested. David Cameron said from New York this evening ‘the Conservative party doesn’t do pacts and deals’ while Angela Eagle of Labour stated ‘any Labour candidate who tried to stand on a joint ticket with UKIP would be auto-excluded from the Labour Party – it’s as simple as that’.
For now, the Farage/Dorries suggestion remains a pipe dream unless they plan to go rogue — and risk deselection — with an agreement on the stump. But you never know: the Tory party has been for turning on other big issues before…
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