Tory HQ reforms guidelines to keep away from choosing ‘lunatic’ candidates

Three and a half years on from the final election, the Liberal Democrats now have fewer MPs than the ‘independents’, the choose group of elected representatives who’ve misplaced their occasion’s whip.

Six of them are Conservatives, and the Tories are down 11 MPs on their whole gained by Boris Johnson on account of by-elections and disciplinary measures over numerous scandals.

In response, Tory HQ is utilizing the time forward of subsequent 12 months’s General Election to revamp their candidate choice course of and weed out these they consider might trigger complications in future parliaments.

Today, the Politico web site published a report on the occasion’s new, extra cautious, guidelines about who will probably be allowed to face as a Conservative MP subsequent 12 months.

One blunt supply mentioned: “CCHQ are being extra cautious with who they choose after getting their fingers burned in 2019.

“They are clamping down on people who are known lunatics.”

Both of the last two elections – 2017 and 2019 – were snap polls, meaning parties had to scramble to select candidates. In 2019 especially, swathes of seats the Tories never dreamed of winning ended up flipping from Labour.

As a result, a few candidates slipped through the cracks of the vetting process and have subsequently been suspended – or resigned entirely – as a result of press revelations about their behaviour.

The Tories are reportedly turning away from their traditional Parliamentary Assessment Board tests in favour of American-style psychometric testing, hoping to root out those candidates ill-suited to the pressures of being an MP.

Financial checks are also being applied.

CCHQ is also hoping to root out those candidates who only want to become MPs because of the attention and ‘celebrity’.

Politico reports that hopeful candidates have been invited to answer ‘agree or disagree’ to questions such as “I really enjoy being the centre of attention” and “I’m always the first one to suggest a party.”

A source said these questions were being used to weed out “abject narcissists… of which there have been quite a few in the recent past”.

Despite the new push for higher-quality MPs, insiders have said there is a “limit to what they can do”.

The Express understands that CCHQ’s elite research department has been drafted in to help the candidates team discover skeletons in closets.

However a source said they’re only focusing on new candidates rather than those already approved.

They joked: “There are sufficient maniacs there to fill headlines for some time.”

Since the 2019 election, plenty of Tory MPs have lost the whip due to proven behaviour or allegations.

Scott Benton, Matt Hancock, Julian Knight, Chris Pincher, Rob Roberts and David Warburton all won seats for the Tories in 2019, however have now lost the whip.

Neil Parish, Imran Ahmad Khan and Owen Paterson have also resigned since their election, all three of their seats being lost by the Tories in the subsequent by-elections.