Why Adeela Shafi didn’t get a namecheck

There is real jumpiness in Tory circles at the moment about the prospects of more candidate disasters. So eyebrows were sent upwards when David Cameron failed to name check Adeela Shafi in a section of his speech this morning which mentioned many of the Muslim candidates standing for the party. The omission seemed surprising as Shafi was one of the people who spoke in the prestigious slot just before the leader’s speech at Tory conference in 2008 and is, I think, the only female Muslim candidate standing for the Tories. The assumption was that she had not been mentioned because of the recent stories about her financial problems.

But the Tories tell me not to read too much into her not been included on the list, pointing out that the list was not exhaustive. It is also true that because Shafi is fighting a seat with a notional Labour majority of 7,379 she will only win it if the Tories win a relatively comfortable majority.