Express & Star

Four compete for Tory nomination in key Dudley seat

Four potential Tory candidates who want to replace an MP in a key marginal seat will be put to a public vote next week.

Published

The four have been shortlisted for a US-style 'open primary' in Dudley South and want to take over from Chris Kelly, who is standing down after one term.

Rather than having members of the Conservative Association make the final decision, party officials have invited anyone of voting age who lives in the constituency to have the final say even if they are not members.

The Tory majority in Dudley South is 3,856 after the party won the seat from Labour in 2010.

The Conservatives will need to hold on to the seat and win more elsewhere if David Cameron is to have a chance of leading a majority government without support from other parties next year.

The four finalists being put to the vote are mother of two Sibby Buckle, a community pharmacist, Helen Harrison, a business woman who runs her own medical practice, Greg Smith, the son of a former chief inspector of police and grandson of a sheet metal worker from Netherton, who runs a marketing business, and Mike Wood, a councillor in Dudley who works for current Halesowen and Rowley Regis MP James Morris.

People have until Friday to register to attend.

The meeting is from 7pm to 10pm next Wednesday, November 26 and will take place in Kingswinford.

Anyone interested can register at www.dudleysouthconservatives.com or anyone without internet access can call Councillor David Blood on 01384 832166.

The constituency takes in Brierley Hill, Brockmoor and Pensnett, Kingswinford North and Wall Heath, Kingswinford South, Netherton, Woodside, St Andrews and Wordsley. At the last election there were more than 61,000 registered voters.

Mr Kelly announced he would be leaving the Commons at the General Election saying he had found it 'increasingly difficult to find the right balance between my work and my personal and family life' and that the 'unpredictability of business in the Commons combined with driving back and forth between the West Midlands and London has meant that I haven't been able to see those close to me as often as I'd like'.

He threw his support behind the open primary process and said: "It has been a pleasure and a privilege to serve the people of Dudley South and I am delighted that they will get a vote not only between the parties in May, but in first choosing the Conservative candidate who will replace me.

"I have always worked for everyone, regardless of whether or not they voted for me.

"Now everyone has a chance to tell my party whose name they want to see on the ballot paper. It is an open, democratic process that allows candidates to be selected on merit."

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