For co-conspirators following the sojourn of Seb Payne towards a safe seat, there is bad news tonight. He missed out on selection in Michael Gove’s former seat by a whisker, just two votes. It might have to be next time, Seb…

Sunak’s Deputy Chief of Staff and founder of centrist Tory think tank Onward Will Tanner has bagged a rare Tory safe seat. He was parachuted into Bury St Edmunds & Stowmarket last night – winning by a “landslide“. To much anger from the local Tories…

Local Tories have been complaining about Tanner – a known Remainer – being selected in a seat that voted to leave the EU in 2016 by 54.1%. Tanner has been cleaning up his digital footprint by unliking previously liked tweets on Twitter  – one of which wrote in February: “Brexit was always going to fail, forcing the Conservative Party into being the party of Brexit was always going to be a long-term mistake”. Not exactly a representation of the people in Bury…

Apparently the Tory bag carrier had a little help to get selected, having been given a list of names and phone numbers to call Tory members and get them on side. A big help that other candidates are not so lucky to have. One local Tory member tells Guido of their disgust: “Will Tanner has been calling members, we feel it’s a fait accompli…We are not overly happy with any of it”. Not a good start to connecting with your constituents…

Meanwhile other Tory SpAds have been hoping to stay in the political arena after losing their desks in Downing Street. Some have not been so lucky – former serial SpAd Anita Boateng lost out in Epping Forest, as did Cleverly’s SpAd Alice Hopkin in Southend. Other losers are Micheal Gove’s SpAd Henry Newman in Bexhill & Battle and Rishi’s SpAd Declan Lyons in Stratford Upon Avon. Serial applicant Seb Payne is shortlisted Surrey Heath. Tory chairman Richard Holden had to pull out of the selection process in Central Suffolk and North Ipswich last night after facing backlash from local members. Now he’s been shortlisted in Basildon & Billericay – he’ll find out tomorrow whether or not he’s been selected. Time is ticking… 

Seb Payne has been added to the shortlist for Surrey Heath, the seat recently vacated by Michael Gove. The seat used to be safe – now it’s a marginal. It’s been a long journey from Seb’s leaving the FT this point…

Tory associations are in a febrile mood, often kicking up a fuss over the imposition of centrally-favoured candidates over longtime local activists. Payne is up against Ed McGuinness, President of Conservatives in the City and candidate in 2019 for Hornsey & Wood Green, and campaigner Anna Robinson. The battle to be the next Gove is on – the selection set for tomorrow night…

UPDATE: A member of Surrey Heath Conservatives gets in touch:

“Payne has already had Rishi and co. attempt to parachute him into Bromsgrove, and now he’s appearing in Surrey Heath. I don’t think it’s possible to get a more Michael Gove-like candidate.

We were promised a shortlist of 3 on Friday and we didn’t get it until Monday, with just 24 hours before the vote. In fact, the shortlist was leaked by the local Lib Dems before members here were even informed. That tells you everything you need to know really – today’s leadership of the Conservative Party has more in common with the Lib Dems than us grassroots activists.

For a Party that believes in freedom, it’s not putting any faith in members at all. It’s a socialist stitch up and it all makes me want to vote for Reform.”

With just 42 days until polling day, parties are scrambling around for candidates to stand in seats. Michael Crick reckons there are around 190 seats with no Tory candidates, while Labour have around 100 vacancies still to fill. New candidates are being announced every few minutes. For Labour, it could be a repeat of the Tory 2019 intake, with down to the wire vetting procedures letting in a few…duds…

With the the election a few weeks away, the Tories will be able to parachute in their favoured candidate in those rare Tory safe seats. Guido has been following the various stitch-ups over the last few weeks. Here are a few Westminster insiders to watch that may be parachuted in by CCHQ:

• Seb Payne.
• Jamie Njoku-Goodwin.
• Will Tanner.
• Alice Hopkin.
• James Forsyth.
• David Goss.
• Emily Sheffield.
• Ed Barker.
• Adam Hawksbee.
• James Price.

Meanwhile, reformed trotskyite hack Paul Mason has lost again – he’s missed out on being shortlisted for Corbyn’s seat in Islington North. The parachute regiment mobilises…

It’s a payneful end to Seb Payne’s political ambitions in Bromsgrove, as votes came in from the re-run of Sajid Javid’s seat selection last night, resulting in an “overwhelming” mandate for Bradley Thomas to be the Tory candidate. Thomas was selected in July, beating Payne by 5 votes, though a complaint from association president Mark Jones led CCHQ to launch an investigation that concluded there should be “confirmation vote”. Local Tories were concerned CCHQ was trying to push Seb Payne in by dubious means. To much angst within the association, CCHQ failed to make the report public. Now they failed to vacate the seat for Payne too…

It would have been tricky to oust the locally popular Thomas, though some local Tories wonder if CCHQ was merely testing the water for these kinds of interventions before more Tory MPs stand down and rapid selections open next year. It’s not the first time the Onward director has thrown his hat in the ring though, being shortlisted in May for Selby and Ainsty. Looks like it’s onwards to the next seat for Seb…

Video: Conservative Post

Local Tories in Bromsgrove are rumbling as the re-run of Sajid Javid’s Bromsgrove seat selection is penned in for mid-December. Local councillor Bradley Thomas was selected back in July, beating Onward’s Seb Payne by five votes. After association president Mark Jones made complaints, CCHQ launched an investigation into claims that some who voted weren’t actually eligible to. They finished their report, though it remains unreleased. Now a “confirmation vote” is taking place. Some wonder why the report hasn’t been made public…

Members were invited late yesterday afternoon to the new vote on 14th December. Local Tories are concerned CCHQ is trying to push Seb Payne in by dubious means. Officials involved in the first selection meeting, which formally confirmed Thomas as the candidate, allegedly weren’t even interviewed by CCHQ’s investigators. Guido readers may remember that back in July a ‘refer back motion’ to restart the selection was proposed – though eventually defeated. Safe seats are running out and candidates are meant to all be in place by January…

A member of the association tells Guido:

“It’s unbelievable that CCHQ has a report which it won’t share with anyone locally – including the chairman – after failing to interview any key witnesses, and after firing the first investigator for producing the wrong conclusion.

I don’t know what hold Mark Jones has over CCHQ, but he is the only person who made a series of complaints, and they all seem to have been upheld with no process at all.

I saw him storm out of the meeting, and he had to be blocked by the moderator from asking an unfair question which he targeted only to Bradley. He spent the weeks prior to the meeting campaigning amongst members for Seb Payne and telling everyone that it was what Sajid wanted and that they had to vote for Seb because he could attract good speakers for our fundraising dinners.

This will open the floodgates to SGM processes all over the country now. I’m not sure that’s what was intended here. I think the process works just fine, with local members choosing who they want – not having people parachuted in from London, or using dirty tricks like these to reverse the Party’s democratic processes“.

Murk and mire…