The Guardian has just posted online a Julian Glover piece which will be in tomorrow’s paper. In the piece, Glover says that Eric Pickles has given an interview to Monday’s Guardian in which he says that he expects 17 more Tory MPs to stand down because of the expenses row. (That would bring the total to thirty).
This means that 17 fairly plum seats will become available, any seat the Tories won last time they should hold this time. I suspect that the leadership would like to use this opportunity to try and expand its potential ministerial talent pool. There might well be a few clashes over the new powers that CCHQ has gained over the selection process.
Update: Via Conservative Home, I see that The Guardian’s news story on this is now up. Here’s the bit about candidate selection:
“Pickles said the departures would give the party the chance to bring dozens of new-style Tories with little or no background in Conservative politics into parliament.
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