EDP24

Tory shortlist for Yarmouth

06 November 2006 07:00

Two well-known local party figures are included in the final shortlist of four contenders for selection as the Tory candidate in the Yarmouth parliamentary seat.

Antony Little stood against Charles Clarke in Norwich South in the last general election, and is a member of Norwich City Council. And Kay Mason, a former member of Norfolk County Council, stood against Ian Gibson in Norwich North in the 2001 general election.

The other two people still in the race are Brandon Lewis, the leader of Brentwood Council in Essex, and Jackie Doyle Price who stood for her party in the safe Labour constituency of Sheffield Hillsbrough in the last general election.

The winner of the contest will be announced on Friday when the 30 to 40 members of the Yarmouth Tories' executive council choose the person they hope can win back the seat that Labour's Tony Wright has represented since 1997.

Theoretically, the executive council's decision could be overturned at a special meeting of the constituency association on November 15, but a party spokesman last night described such an eventuality as “highly unlikely”.

Three of the four left in the selection process are on David Cameron's 'A-list' of priority candidates whom he wants chosen to make his party more representative of British society in the Commons. The exception is Mr Little.

The shortlist was reduced from six to four on Friday after candidates were grilled in front of local party members by Peter Glanville, the ex-controller of Radio Norfolk. The two people eliminated were Yarmouth businessman Theodore Agnew and Simon Jones, a former member of Waveney Council.

Yarmouth is a seat the Conservatives must hope to regain to be in a position to form a government after the next general election.

It has traditionally been a Tory constituency, though Labour won it in the Attlee years and in 1966. Mr Wright has successfully defended it twice, but his majority last time was cut to 3,055.