Trouble is brewing again in Rochford and Southend East. Outgoing Tory MP James Duddridge seems to have waved the white flag on working, apparently clearing out his desk in his constituency office. This freeing up some room for nepo-SpAd Alice Hopkin to take up a desk two days a week. Perhaps she’s reduced her role as SpAd to James Cleverly to part-time to allow her to focus on her selection bid…
Now, a Special General Meeting has been called for Friday 3rd May – the day after the local elections – with the backing of Duddridge. The main purpose of the meeting is to remove the Association Chairman, Gavin Chambers, and parachute in a temporary chair to oversee a ‘fair selection’. Chambers himself has been calling for a more transparent and open candidate selection process over the last few months…
Local Tories have been getting in touch with Guido to complain of the saga, fearing ‘by election rules’ will be imposed so only three candidates are allowed – one favoured by CCHQ, two weaker token candidates to make favoured look the best. The whiff of a CCHQ stitch-up isn’t going away…
