Tory Activists Criticise Party Chairman Richard Holden’s Selection in Basildon

The leader of the Conservative group on Basildon Council in Essex has criticised the decision to effectively impose party chairman Richard Holden as the town’s parliamentary candidate. Mr. Holden, 39, worked in Conservative Party central office between 2007 and 2015, working his way up from data entry office to deputy head of press, and was elected as the Tory MP for North West Durham in the December 2019 election. The constituency, deep in the heart of the so-called Red Wall of pro-Brexit Labour strongholds, has been abolished in the latest boundary changes. Lancashire-born Mr. Holden appears to have done a so-called chicken run, a common political practice where an MP who faces losing their seat seeks out a safe seat....