Former Lib Dem London Mayoral selection candidate Chamali Fernando, who defected to the Conservatives in July, will take part in an Open Primary selection in Cambridge this Saturday, 12 December.
At the General Election the winning candidate will face whoever succeeds the Liberal Democrat MP David Howarth, who is standing down to concentrate on his career as an academic. The Liberal Democrats’ selection is also currently underway.
Billed as “more than just a Cameron cutie!” you can read Chamali’s pitch on Cambridge Conservatives’ website, as well as the biographies of the other five shortlistees.
12 December UPDATE: Nick Hillman (Chief of Staff to David Willetts MP) has been selected as the Conservative candidate for Cambridge. See ConservativeHome for more.
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So she applies for a safe Lib Dem seat, but only after she has left the Party? Weird.
it doesnt mention she defected on her front page. It says she was the ‘youngest candidate to be chosen….’ – yes, by Liberal Democrats!! Hilarious
A pedant writes: Chamali was a candidate for the London mayoral selection, not for the mayoral election itself.
Thanks Bernard; now edited.
Of the 6 shortlised – 4 women and 2 from a BME background. Be interesting to see how our shortlist compares
“Of the 6 shortlised – 4 women and 2 from a BME background. Be interesting to see how our shortlist compares”
Of course if you look at balance & diversity from a different angle there is also a boring old white male candidate. Who has been blind from birth.
Wise is a party which asks people to have been a member for a minimum period before becoming a candidate.
“it doesnt mention she defected on her front page.”
Well, quite. It speaks volumes that she doesn’t have the honesty to mention that she was a member of another party until less than 5 months ago.
@Crewegwyn
But I don’t think we do. I actually prefer our system of requiring references from five people who have been party members for X years (assuming that is still the case) as you can get people who make very good candidates who hadn’t been members before. I think the Labour MP for Wirral South only joined a few months before becoming a candidate as he had been in very politically restricted job.
“It speaks volumes that she doesn’t have the honesty to mention that she was a member of another party until less than 5 months ago.”
Maybe they’ll pick her and claim no-one knew. Though I suspect they know how to use Google in Cambridge
crewegwyn: “Wise is a party which asks people to have been a member for a minimum period before becoming a candidate.”
I’m not sure that’s true. There is a lot to be said for pursuading a popular local figure who works hard in the community and is broadly in line with party policy to stand. A lot more, sometimes, than parachuting in some party aparachik.
And as Hywel notes, sometimes people have good reasons for not being members. Some of my long-standing deliverers and helpers have never joined.
What is crucial is checking them for quality. I’d rather sign a hard-working would-be candidate up as a member than take a useless, bone-idle member and make them a candidate.
Good to see that she continues her comittment to environmental causes, and interesting also to see that she says nothing about the EU or immigration.
I am curious to know what she thinks on these issues. I wonder how much someone changes their opinions when they change parties.
Tom,
The catch of picking someone without a track record of liberal democracy is that you are more vulnerable to defections later. That, in itself, is not a reason for not doing so, but it is something that you need to be aware of. I have to admit that I recently attempted to remove the time restriction altogether, on the grounds that, if we’re testing potential candidates for their values and beliefs, that should suffice. Alright, I lost, but I wasn’t a lone voice.
As for Chamali, the one thing that I find puzzling is that she doesn’t really comment on what she would do for others if selected and then elected. Personally, that’s what I would be looking for as a voter, taking part in an open primary, as opposed to an internal party selection where only activists are involved. However, only time will tell which strategy is most effective in such a contest.
See updated post: Nick Hillman selected for Cambridge today.
Steve Webb had only been a member for a couple of years before getting approved & selected.
All being a member for a long while requires is someone to complete a Direct Debit form!