Congratulations to Wendy Morton, who was selected yesterday evening to succeed Sir Richard Shepherd as Conservative candidate for Aldridge-Brownhills. Sir Richard won a majority of 15,256 at the last election, and is retiring from the Commons in May.
The selection was marked by the postponement of the final – which this site revealed to be caused by the protests of Nick Timothy, one of Theresa May’s special advisers, over false claims by CCHQ that he had withdrawn from the contest.
Timothy’s protests led to his removal from the candidates’ list, a decision in which the hand of Downing Street was evident. The other candidates in yesterday evening’s postponed final were Pamela Hall, Marco Longhi and Adrian Pepper.