The Tories don’t need Zac back in Richmond. They need Luke Parker

Are the Conservatives sharp enough to be able to beat the Liberal Democrats in battleground Remain-voting seats? We hear today that they might put forward Zac Goldsmith as their candidate for Richmond Park – the same Zac Goldsmith who quit the party in protest at the Heathrow decision, then triggered a by-election and ran as an independent. But he lost to a Lib Dem. So now he has decided to rejoin the party and run again – and oddly, they’ve let him. He’s in the final three. To select him would be a huge tactical own goal for the Tories: as Neil Kinnock found out, when voters turn something down, they don’t like to be asked again. And as Zac found out, it’s hard for an arch-Brexiteer to win in an arch-Remain constituency: a new fact of political life.

But the Tories in Richmond do have an alternative. Also standing for the seat is Luke Parker, one of the most promising Tory activists I’ve met.