TORY frontbencher Anne McIntosh will tonight seek to fight off an attempt to deselect her from the North Yorkshire seat she is fighting at the general election.
Miss McIntosh, a shadow environment minister, is facing attempts to deselect her from the new Thirsk and Malton seat with Tory sources blaming a breakdown in relations between her and senior constituency officials.
The Vale of York MP, whose curre
nt seat disappears in a boundary shake-up at the election, surprised many by winning the nomination for the seat in 2006.
She defeated Ryedale MP John Greenway, in spite of the new constituency incorporating most of his current seat.
Miss McIntosh is the latest in a string of Tory MPs to face a deselection attempt. Anne Main and Richard Ottaway have both recently fought off attempts to oust them in recent weeks in the wake of the expenses scandal.
One Tory insider said it was "really hard to call" the outcome of the vote, which will come at tonight's special meeting of the constituency association, which has one of the Tories' biggest memberships. Members will each be able to speak if they wish to before taking part in a secret ballot to decide her fate, which could mean a lengthy session.
Officials at the constituency association have remained tight lipped over the deselection row, although insiders blame a breakdown in relations between Miss McIntosh, who won the Vale of York seat in 1997 after previously sitting as an MP, and members of the executive.
There is no suggestion that it relates to the revelations over MPs' use of allowances, from which Miss McIntosh emerged unscathed.
The deselection attempt has, however, angered some members.
In comments posted on Conservative Home, the party's grassroots website, one branded it a "petty vendetta" by members of the executive, accusing them of having "their own hidden agenda".
Another said there "seems to be a small group of people who are leading this coup", and claimed most people in the association backed Miss McIntosh.
The largely rural Thirsk and Malton seat is a safe Tory constituency. If it had been contested at the last election, the Tories are projected to have secured a majority in excess of 14,000.
As a junior member of the Tories' environment team, Miss McIntosh has been prominent in leading the party's criticism of the Government's response to the floods of summer 2007.
Constituency chairman Simon Wood said: "I can confirm there's a members' meeting." He refused to comment further or to "give a running commentary".
Last night Miss McIntosh refused to comment until after the meeting. Last month she said she was grateful for the support she had received from across the constituency.
