Stafford Tories reject 'false and abhorrent' claims in MP row

Stafford Conservative Association members voted not to readopt Theo Clarke as candidate for the next general election at a meeting last Friday, with the MP revealing she had faced abuse for taking time off after giving birth.

She has vowed to fight for her political future in the town, telling the Express & Star she was "very confident" of winning a full ballot of members.

In a statement, Duncan Sandbrook, chairman of Stafford Conservative Association, rejected any implications that members had failed to support Ms Clarke during her maternity leave.

The statement said: "Stafford Conservative Association would like to make it unequivocally clear that it fully supports a woman’s right to take maternity leave. (The) association is not party to any information that proves there is a factual basis for this claim; should evidence be presented to the association supporting these allegations, these instances will be dealt with commensurately."

It adds: "At no stage during Friday’s meeting did any participant raise the issue of maternity leave, other than Ms. Clarke who mentioned it briefly, in passing, in her opening address to the meeting and in the context of having recently returned to work following maternity leave.

"The idea that the widespread and long-standing dissatisfaction with Ms Clarke as MP for Stafford, that has led to her failure to be re-adopted, is the result of her decision to take maternity leave, is both false and abhorrent.

"Ms Clarke has announced her intention to challenge the outcome and refer the final decision to the full membership of the local party, which is her right. Stafford Conservative Association is fully supportive of this process being followed."

Ms Clarke said less than 10 per cent of the full membership had taken part in the vote. She added: “It’s really important that all the membership have a say on who they want to be their candidate at the next general election as we are a democratic organisation.

“I believe I have an excellent record of helping my constituents and of bringing millions of investment to Stafford in my three years as MP for this wonderful place. That is the positive background I am going to use for my campaign in the coming weeks to be readopted as Stafford’s Conservative parliamentary candidate.”