Congratulations to the winner of tonight’s selection in Brentwood and Ongar (Conservative majority 21,810), seeking to succeed Sir Eric Pickles, who has just been named as:
Alex Burghart: Currently the lead adviser on social justice in the Prime Minister’s Policy Unit, Burghart was previously Director of Strategy for the Children’s Commissioner. From 2012 to 2016 he was Director of Policy at the Centre for Social Justice, including working with Fiona Hill on modern slavery, prior to which he served as a policy adviser at the Department for Education, leading on the Department’s work on the Munro Review of social work and child protection. He is a former history tutor at King’s College London, and has written several times for this site. In the 2015 General Election, he stood against Jeremy Corbyn in Islington North.
ConservativeHome’s commiserations go to the two unsuccessful candidates, Cllr Gagan Mohindra and Sarah Heald.