As ConservativeHome reports, the Conservative Party is continuing to keep secret much of the information about its recent European Parliament candidates selection process. Although the winners have been announced, the Conservative Party is still refusing to reveal information such as the number of votes won by each candidate.

It’s likely that publishing that information would trigger even more criticism of the process as it would show how few members supported some of the re-selected MEPs, who were only rescued by the special protection for them in the rules.

(By contrast, the Liberal Democrats publish the full figures for our European selections – including first preference votes and the detailed vote transfers at each stage.)

Also of particular interest further down the comments thread is this comment:

I was told that membership had fallen by 17,000 over the last eighteen months by a CCHQ insider and the press office haven’t either denied or confirmed that that is the case.
The Editor