George Smith, the local Conservative leader, expects to beat Residents for Uttlesford, but faces acutely difficult decisions about how many houses to build.
The tally of candidate nominations offers some encouragement for the Conservatives, with the low number from Reform UK. But an anti-Conservative electoral pact in Waverley may be a source of anxiety.
As a rule, the Conservatives are unclear about the politics of equality and identity. But there’s at least one Minister who isn’t.
We could not have provided exclusive after exclusive without your phone calls, texts, e-mails and tips.
The Tories are making gradual rather than spectacular progress on ethnic diversity – as the party’s class of 2017 looks set to prove.
Plus: Diversity sweeps Essex. Forget the Conservative Party – this is May’s campaign. And: Give Anne Jenkin a peerage. But of course: she already has one.
Plus: Eleven candidates selected elsewhere, including Gillian Keegan in Chichester and Kemi Badenoch in Saffron Walden.
Plus the details of other seats selecting this evening.
Latest news from round the country.
The selections in the two Tory-held seats to date have both been won by women; and there is at least one woman on the shortlist of every such seat yet to select.
All the latest candidate selections, shortlists in key marginals and details of tonight’s contests.
Plus: May needs Johnson. My election predictions. Strange selection decisions. And: why I decided not to put my name forward for the seat in which I grew up.
It was not entirely clear at the time that it had created a new political structure that would last for generations – with the Conservatives as the leading party of the state.
Only one per cent of Tory MPs were once manual workers. For a party that considers itself to be the champion of the Just About Managing, this is not good enough.