Turmoil in Town Centre Tory Candidate Selection Process as Third Meeting is Called

Published on: 16 Jul, 2018
Updated on: 16 Jul, 2018

Town centre Tories are to have a third go at selecting candidates for next year’s borough council elections after candidates and members have criticised management of the selection process.

Cllr Geoff Davis

All appeared routine when in March (2018) the three incumbent borough councillors, Geoff Davis, Nils Christiansen and Dennis Paul, who had all passed through an earlier Guildford-wide candidate approval process, were reselected as candidates for Holy Trinity ward at a Conservative branch meeting.

But in May questions were raised about the organisation of the meeting. Some complained that not all local members had been contacted and given sufficient notice.

Cllr Nils Christiansen

So the Executive of the Guildford Conservative Association (GCA) ordered a second meeting to be held. The GCA Executive has the power, in any case, to overrule any result where a selection meeting had an insufficient number of members present, said usually to be the case, to form a quorum.

The second selection meeting was held in early July at which only GBC Executive member Geoff Davis, (older persons champion, special advisor to the leader and lead councillor for social enterprise and the voluntary sector) was selected with, according to one report, the support of a small group of younger members.

Cllr Dennis Paul

But the arrangements and conduct of this meeting have also now been questioned. Some members, and even candidates, are said to have complained about the lack of notice they were given of the meeting and some of the candidates are said not to have been made aware of the necessity to present a CV, an unusual requirement for such meetings, it is believed.

Others questioned whether proper eligibility checks were made at the meetings. Only those members who live in the ward should be given notice of the meeting and are eligible to vote.

As a result of the complaints made, a third meeting has had to be called and it is unclear whether Geoff Davis’ selection will stand or not and therefore whether two or three candidates remain to be selected.

Holy Trinity ward forms the southeastern quarter of the town centre, as can be seen in this 2015 map of GBC election results (note: Stoke is now represented by two Labour councillors as a result of a by-election).

Within the branch membership, there are reports of dissatisfaction over the ward being represented by, “three, white, middle-aged, balding men” and female candidates are believed to have put themselves forward for selection.

Another background factor may be that both Cllrs Christiansen, an ardent Remainer, and Paul have been prepared to speak out against the council leader’s policies, on occasion.

None of the incumbent councillors live in Holy Trinity but there is recognition from some residents that Dennis Paul and Nils Christiansen have been diligent in representing the ward. Both have regularly attended meetings of the local resident’s group Holy Trinity Action Group (HTAG).

Some Conservatives are also reporting an upsurge in numbers of candidates putting themselves forward in Guildford and the three Holy Trinity seats are likely to be regarded as an attractive and fairly safe.

41 Tory candidates are understood to have successfully passed through the first stage approval process and will now be competing for selection in the 12 Guildford Borough wards covered by GCA. 30 of the 48 borough council seats are available in those wards, 21 of them are currently held by Conservatives.*

From 1991 to 2011 Holy Trinity ward was represented by two Lib Dem councillors and one Tory. In the 2011 and 2015 borough council elections, all three ward seats were won by Conservatives.

Bob Hughes

Bob Hughes, GCA chairman responsible for overseeing the selection process, who himself is hoping to be selected as a borough council candidate, was asked by The Guildford Dragon NEWS:

1. How and why have these problems arisen in Holy Trinity ward?
2. Why did members wait until the Executive meeting in May to raise objections about the selection meeting held in February [now believed to have been March]?
3. How is the eligibility of those voting in ward selection meetings checked?
4. Is it true that there are concerns that the ward is being represented by middle-aged men?
5. When will the “final” meeting be held?
6. What does it say about GCA’s organisational ability if there have been these problems over a simple council ward candidate selection process?

Hughes responded: “We have excellent councillors in Holy Trinity and in our other wards and they are running a highly regarded and effective council. In addition, we have a number of high-quality people who want to become councillors.

“We are running the selection process fairly and in accordance with the rules set down by the party nationally. We will announce our candidates when we have completed the process.”

*some figures in this paragraph, shown in an earlier version of this article, have been have been corrected.

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