Tory row over MP descends into open warfare

The bloodshed among Thirsk and Malton Conservatives worsened with Margaret Singleton, the local association’s deputy chairman of membership and fund-raising – and a prominent supporter of embattled MP Anne McIntosh – announcing her resignation in an open letter to fellow Tories.

Party members are bitterly divided over their local association’s efforts to de-select Miss McIntosh, a senior Conservative backbencher, from one of the safest Tory seats in the whole of the North of England.

The Yorkshire Post revealed details yesterday of an internal Conservative Party inquiry which found local executives broke party rules by co-opting a significant number of new members onto their decision-making committee, shortly before the crunch meeting last year when Miss McIntosh was first de-selected.

As allegations of dirty tricks and whispering campaigns continue ahead of Friday’s crunch ballot of local members that will finally decide Miss McIntosh’s future, a prominent North Yorkshire businessman and local Conservative, Victor Buchanan, warned the battle is tearing the association apart.

“It’s poisoned the local association,” he said. “We’re all aware that political party memberships are dropping like stones everywhere – but here, particularly, our membership is declining very fast. Nobody really wants to join while there is this process going on.”

The intervention from Mr Buchanan – who owns a luxury 16th century coaching inn, the White Swan, in Pickering – came after the resignation of Ms Singleton from her key role in raising funds and attracting new members to Thirsk and Malton.

“In my role within the local executive, I have always supported the democratically-elected MP,” she wrote, in an open letter to local members.

“I would like us all to be able to decide for ourselves how we vote, without outside comments and influences.

“Sadly, a divisive and destructive situation has arisen over this selection process.

“It is therefore with regret that I inform all members of the Thirsk and Malton Conservative Association that I have resigned as your elected Deputy Chairman of Membership and Fund Raising.”

The warring factions within the local party were exposed in the internal Conservative Party report into Thirsk and Malton, compiled last summer but published for the first time yesterday by the Yorkshire Post.

After detailing incidences of alleged rule-breaking among local party leaders, the report called on the association to pull together for the good of the party.

“This association is troubled by factions,” the report said.

“It needs to unite, and personal feelings need to be set aside in the greater interest of the party.

“A divided and fractious association will not attract new members, achieve success at fundraising, nor be in a position to establish new branches.”

But Miss McIntosh’s opponents in the constituency continue to rail against the findings of the report, rebutting its findings and demanding an apology from Conservative Party chairman Lord Feldman.

In a separate letter in today’s Yorkshire Post, Thirsk and Malton Conservative President James Holt attacked the “shameless spin” of Miss McIntosh’s supporters and their “campaign of snide and false allegations” against senior members of the local party’s executive.

Mr Holt also defended the appointment of new members to the executive last year, insisting every action “was done in good faith, and under advice from regional, and later national, officials.”

But Labour said local constituents were being neglected as the civil war continues.

The party said that it was now time for the Prime Minister to intervene.

“David Cameron needs to get a grip on this situation,” said Karl Turner, a Labour whip and the MP for Hull East.

“He used to boast about modernising his party, but now local Tories are on the verge of kicking out their only woman MP in the whole of Yorkshire.

“This affair shows a Tory association fighting tooth and nail to get rid of their MP, the MP trying to save her job, and Tory HQ stuck in the middle.

“The Tories in Thirsk and Malton are attacking each other when they should be standing up for local people.”