THE CONSERVATIVE Party’s chosen Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) for Bromsgrove looks set to face a ‘confirmatory vote’ to see if he will be the one standing at next year’s general election.
Bradley Thomas was chosen as the candidate to stand following the decision by current MP Sajid Javid not to recontest his seat.
Mr Thomas was unveiled by the Bromsgrove Conservative Association in August following a local vote and even stepped down as the leader of Wychavon District Council to take up the role.
There were claims in the national media this week that plans were afoot to try and replace local candidate Mr Thomas with an alternative ‘high flyer’ preferred by Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) and that local party members were not happy with what the national arm of the party was doing.
We contacted the national Conservative Party head office and a spokesperson said: “Due to an irregularity in the selection process, a confirmatory vote will be held by members of the Conservative Party to confirm the adoption of the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Bromsgrove Constituency.”
On conservativehome.co.uk it was reported the special general meeting timetabled for mid-December was triggered after it was found ‘attendees who voted in the original selection poll were ineligible to do so’. It added the ‘confirmatory vote’ would be similar to the process followed by sitting MPs seeking readoption, allowing members to question Mr Thomas and then vote on whether they wish to keep him as a candidate.
The report on the website added, if the members declared they had ‘no confidence’ in Mr Thomas, the selection process would begin again.
The Labour Party is yet to unveil its PPC for the general election and the Liberal Democrats have selected long-term campaigner and current Bromsgrove District Councillor Dr David Nicholl.
Dr Nicholl said: “This is more chaos from the Conservatives both locally and nationally.”
