Tories select candidates to replace outgoing big names

The candidates for Daventry, Northampton North and South Northamptonshire have now been chosen

Jun 03, 2024

Before we get into today’s political story, a reminder that it’s Indie News Week. The sector, of which NN Journal is a part, has been growing in recent years, with many small print and online publications setting up across the country to plug the gap that’s being left by the larger newspaper groups cutting staff and closing down newspaper offices.

This is the first time the Indie News Week has been held and we are joining with more than 40 other outlets joining together to promote our sector - with the slogan for this inaugural campaign being No News is Bad News. Put simply, if local news is not consumed and paid for, it will not survive. And that will undoubtedly be a loss to our communities.

Later this week we will have an investigation looking at where the news is coming from and the influence of local public bodies on the news that residents are provided with.

But first the Public Interest News Foundation is offering to match anything we raise this month.

So if you subscribe to NN Journal your £60 annual fee will become £120. We will use this money to pay for additional reporting on the general election night.

And if you want to come and find out more about what we do; have a chat; give us some stories, then please come along to the N Live offices in St John’s Street, Northampton on Friday anytime between 11am and 3pm.

Have a complimentary coffee and cake and let us know your thoughts.

Tories select candidates to replace outgoing big names

Andrea Leadsom, Michael Ellis and Chris Heaton-Harris all decided to quit before the election.

The Tory candidates who want to take over from the big political names who have stepped down, were chosen at the weekend.

Northants’ biggest political figures, Andrea Leadsom, Chris Heaton-Harris and Michael Ellis, all announced they would not be standing in Rishi Sunak’s snap election, and over the weekend their replacements were quickly selected.

It was a rush job and only one of the candidates is local, with some concern that local activists and councillors who had wanted to be chosen were overlooked.

Despite the rumours, Michael Ellis did not make a chicken run to Daventry and instead former MP for Pudsey in Yorkshire Stuart Andrew was selected.

Andrew, whose current constituency will disappear due to boundary changes, was the clear winner with more than 50 per cent of the votes on Sunday’s first ballot. There were two other candidates, chairperson of West Northants unitary Joanne Gilford and Wolverhampton party activist Arun Photay.

Andrew told party members that if they chose him, he would most certainly move to Daventry from Yorkshire. “You can’t represent a constituency if you don’t live in it,” he said.

Answering questions from party members, he said defence was the Government’s No. 1 role and that it must be a top priority to fund it properly. He backed Rishi Sunak’s pledge to build 100 more GPs surgeries and said we should use the “vast resources” of our pharmacies to cut appointment waiting times.

After the ballot was announced at the meeting at Daventry Town Football Club, he said he was “deeply honoured” to have been chosen. “There is a massive fight ahead and I plan to get onto as many doorsteps as possible.”

Andrew overturned a 6,000 Labour majority to win the marginal Pudsey seat in 2010. He has successfully held onto it four times since.

Chris Heaton-Harris’s majority at the last election was 21,734 with 63% of the vote. He told NNJournal that after helping to canvass both in Daventry and nationally, he will consider his future plans during the summer.

In South Northamptonshire, long standing councillor and former cabinet member on the county council and the west unitary Lizzie Bowen was overlooked and did not even make the shortlist. The seat is one of the safest in the county and has been held by Andrea Leadsom since 2010.

Sarah Bool, whose father Kenneth is former Conservative chairman of Rutland County Council, won the nomination after a vote by members. In 2019 she stood for Vauxhall and is a property lawyer.

Andrea Leadsom shared the news of Sarah Bool’s candidacy on social media.

She beat former Bedfordshire police, fire and crime commissioner Festus Akinbusoye and Hertfordshire county councillor Caroline Clapper. In an interview with Andrea Leadsom posted to Leadom’s social media she said had big shoes to fill, but could not wait to get out on the doorsteps.

And in Northampton North, Dan Bennett, who worked for several years for outgoing MP Michael Ellis, won the nomination.

Since being selected he has deleted his X account and also his LinkedIn account.

In other news, despite missing out on the Wellingborough & Rushden candidacy, Conservative Helen Harrison was chosen over the weekend as the candidate for Thanet East in Kent.

Serving conservative MPs who will contest their seats again are Phillip Hollobone (Kettering), Tom Pursglove (Corby) and Andrew Lewer (Northampton South). Labour’s Gen Kitchen, who has only been in parliament since the February byelection, will also stand again.