Today is the deadline for Conservative candidates to be selected – and one man made it just under the wire. Richard Holden, the party chairman, was last night selected for the constituency of Basildon and Billericay after an acrimonious selection process. Under party rules, if a seat is vacant within 48 hours of the nomination deadline, then the party can propose just one name. Holden was thus the only candidate put to local members. The two-hour long meeting was restricted to the association executive, with ordinary members unable to attend.
Compounding the anger towards Holden is that he is the party chairman and thus held to a different standard
Andrew Baggott, the association chairman, complained that ‘We’ve known that the seat needed a candidate since last October. CCHQ (Conservative Campaign Headquarters) have fobbed us off for months and even last night [Tuesday] we were told that we would have a group of three candidates to choose from.’ Speaking
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