Last night the news broke that John Maples, Member of Parliament for Stratford Upon Avon had decided to retire at this election. The news was a big surprise to me, although I'm new to the association so wouldn't be privy to everything that goes on.
By retiring after January the 1st he has meant that the local association must choose a candidate under by-election rules, ie. Conservative Central office will enforce a shortlist of three candidates that the Association must choose from.
As the party's head of candidate selection he undoubtably came up with this rule and certainly knew what the effect of his resignation after January 1st would be. He has written to Conservative Home to explain why the situation has arisen and basically it revolves around protecting his reputation.
Clearly he had decided to retire much earlier but was waiting for Sir Thomas Legge's report into expenses to clear him of having to repay anything, because if he was to resign before that it would look like he was doing so in disgrace.
Following the report's publication he says that he had to see David Cameron and our association chairman on December 12th but that the previous day the Telegraph had published an article about the profit made on the sale of his constituency home. He says that had he announced his retirement the next day it would have been seen "as at least linked to the article if not as a result of it" apparently he therefore felt he "had no alternative but to wait a few weeks, which is what I did."
So he basically disenfranchised the association to ensure that his reputation wasn't impinged in any way on a national stage, but never mind the local one.
Related Posts:
Replacing John Maples - The Procedure
Replacing John Maples - It Continues
Showing posts with label Retirement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Retirement. Show all posts
Monday, January 11, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
John Maples Retiring
I have to say I'm not happy about the late notice of it at all. As far as I knew and it seems others within the association knew, he was running again, the issue came up in a meeting I had as recent as November with someone who really should have known if he wasn't.
Total contempt for the local association, and all becuase we are a safe seat.
More on this tomorrow
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