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Tory MP accuses Cameron of gerrymandering over A-list
Simon McGee Political Editor DAVID Cameron's attempt to get more women and ethnic minority Tory candidates was last night described as "gerrymandering" by one of his own MPs – as evidence emerged of officials tearing up the rule book to help achieve it.
In an unprecedented attack on the Conservative leader's list of "brightest and best" prospects, Shipley MP Philip Davies said the party had ditched selecting on merit and insisted the way candidates were being chosen "stinks".
The outcry comes as the Yorkshire Post can reveal a Labour defector was placed on the A-list when party rules stipulated he should have been ineligible because he had only recently failed an assessment weekend.
Rehman Chishti, who fought the 2005 election as Labour's candidate against Tory party chairman Francis Maude, moved over to the Conservatives amid a fanfare of publicity last March and in the same month attended a Parliamentary Assessment Board.
Party sources said a panel, including Mr Cameron's parliamentary private secretary, Desmond Swayne, failed him. Under rules which have applied to countless long-standing Tory hopefuls, Mr Chishti should have been made to wait at least 12 months before being allowed a resit – but one was organised for him just weeks later.
He passed the second assessment and his name was placed on the list over the summer.
The revelation was met with alarm last night. One angry A-list candidate, who asked not to be named, said: "Things like that completely undermine the A-list and turn it into even more of a joke than it's already perceived.
"How can it have any credibility when they bend the rules like that?"
Mr Davies said: "I don't see why people who have worked for the Conservative Party for years should be pushed to one side to make way for somebody who has been working against the party for years. Everybody should be treated equally."
He said recent figures showing regular candidates were four times more likely to get a place on the elite A-list if they were female were evidence the new system was based on "political correctness".
"Where's the evidence that these women are four times better than their male counterparts?" Mr Davies added. "I'm sure that there are lots of people who feel that the whole situation stinks.
"I hope that the party ditches all this stuff, which is in effect causing far more harm than good, and goes back to a system of selecting on merit rather than gerrymandering the system."
But Mr Cameron made it clear yesterday that he was unconcerned about such accusations.
Asked by the Yorkshire Post to explain why women candidates were so much more likely to make it on to the A- list, he said: "That's a matter for those that do the selecting.
"We're trying to do something here which is to correct the historic under-representation of women in the Conservative Party. This has meant difficult decisions."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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