The war over Joanne Cash — and what it tells us about Cameron’s Conservatives

James Forsyth reviews the week in politics

If a committee of David Cameron’s advisers were to design what they regarded as the perfect Tory candidate, the result would look something like Joanne Cash. She is intelligent, successful, a talented lawyer, educated at a state school and with staunch, considered conservative principles. She was duly earmarked for a must-win Labour-Tory marginal: Westminster North. After she was selected she became even more of a Cameroon poster child as she is expecting a child. She could be used as living, breathing proof of how Mr Cameron has succeeded in modernising the party.

But the best-laid plans of Cameron HQ can go awry — and, in the case of Ms Cash, spectacularly so. Instead of being lauded, she has been undermined. Her status as a candidate with the backing of the leadership has solicited hostility, rather than loyalty, from the Tory grassroots. The infighting has been so unpleasant that she resigned as a candidate on Monday night — but then announced (via Twitter) that she was staying after all. What she did not reveal, and what has not been properly reported, is the full story of what happened.

Like many a Tory looking for a seat, Ms Cash started with a distinct disadvantage: she was a member of Mr Cameron’s much-derided ‘A List’, which was designed to promote women, gays and ethnic minority candidates. She is also pure Cameroon aristocracy. Her husband is an Etonian friend of the Tory leader, and Michael Gove and Ed Vaizey were at her wedding. When the leadership was receiving a torrent of criticism for suggesting the introduction of all-women shortlists, it was Cash who stepped up to defend the idea on conservativehome.com, an activists’ website which was fiercely opposed to the plan.