Some late-night Friday drama in the West Midlands. The selection committee of the Stafford Conservative Association have tonight passed a motion to prevent incumbent MP Theo Clarke from being their candidate next time around. Clarke was elected in 2019 and resigned her role as a government trade envoy last July in protest at Boris Johnson’s leadership. She returned on Monday from six months of maternity leave. In a statement tonight she said:
I have only returned from maternity leave this week and I have been very disappointed by the abuse that i have received since i announced I was having a baby. The selection committee have made their decision and it is my full intention to go [to] the membership.
It is the second successful deselection motion by a local executive, following Sally Ann-Hart’s earlier this month in Hastings. Both Clarke and Hastings are to face ballots from the full membership of their respective associations, as per the party rule book. If the membership agree with the decision of the executive then it will stand. Party chairman Greg Hands has been quick out of the blocks to declare his support, declaring that:
We stand behind our MPs in these sometimes complicated re-adoptions. Theo Clarke is a brilliant young MP who has a very bright future in our party. I am glad she is taking it to the whole membership, following the rules of the Party.
The question is: how many other Tory MPs will suffer the same embarrassment?
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