Parliamentary Candidates - Changes to the Conservative Party Constitution

 

Changes to the Conservative Party Constitution – Parliamentary Candidates

 

Yesterday 27 October, Paul Goodman wrote on the Conservativehome web site:

“We are trying to imagine what Boris Johnson, in his buccaneering days as a Daily Telegraph columnist and aspirant Conservative candidate, would have made of an e-mail telling him that “we are moving away from the linear two-pass model and instead are transitioning to a nine-box lattice model”.  And that “this will provide a much broader and flexible range of development paths”.

Our guess is that he would run for the hills.  Or for his word processor.  Or both.

That may also be the instinct of members of the Conservative candidates’ list, who as we write this piece, are receiving a note containing those words.

The e-mail also refers to “a reimagined competency framework” and ensuring “that our new platforms are populated with one source of truth” and offering “a supportive and bespoke development journey for each one of you”.  So, what’s going on?”

 

One of the things that is going on is a proposal that the Constitution of the Conservative Party is to be changed.   At present the Party Board:

 “ shall establish and maintain in accordance with the provisions of Article 19.2 a Committee of the Board on Candidates, (“The Committee on Candidates”} the composition and membership of which shall be as the Board shall from time to time determine, but which shall be chaired by a chairman (“the Chairman of the Committee on Candidates”) who shall report directly to the Board.”

This is proposed to be changed to:

“The Chairman of the Committee on Candidates(sub Committee of the Board) shall be nominated by the Chairman of the National Conservative Convention. Appointed by the Board.”

In other words, whereas currently any member of the Party Board could nominate the Chairman of the Committee on Candidates, now only the Chairman of the National Conservative Convention can do so.   This is a blatant naked power grab by the Chairman of the National Convention.   One more reason why the National Convention should be abolished.

The Chairman of the Committee on Candidates should be elected by and accountable to all Party members at an Annual General Meeting of the Party to which all Party members are invited.   At that AGM, The Chairman of the Committee on Candidates should report on the state of the Candidates List and answer any questions members may have.

Parliamentary candidates should be selected by the local Constituency Association without interference by CCHQ except in those cases where the membership of the Association is less than 100

Without these radical reforms we will continue to get the nonsense illustrated by Paul Goodman above!