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Courtesy of the Times.
More than 3,000 people have applied to stand as Change UK candidates at the European parliament elections, overwhelming the fledgling centrist party. MPs from the Independent Group, the force behind the new organisation, are working through applications and will select from a shortlist of 100 this weekend. According to insiders, the enthusiastic response is in marked contrast to a Conservative campaign that is likely to be stripped to the bare minimum of funding. Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, yesterday became the latest senior Tory to admit that the elections on May 23 would be “disastrous” for the governing party.
The Conservatives’ poll ratings have collapsed since Theresa May chose to delay Brexit rather than leave without a deal. Her decision to open talks with Labour has further encouraged a full-scale party mutiny. As voters desert the party, local Conservative associations are threatening to boycott the European election campaign. The party has managed to fill its candidate slate, with all but three of its 18 MEPs agreeing to stand again. There is virtually no chance of new candidates getting elected since the incumbents will be handed the highest rankings in the regional list system that is used to elect MEPs. A senior figure conceded that key campaign decisions, including whether to have a manifesto or official launch, had yet to be taken. There have been suggestions that the Tories may restrict their efforts to Freepost mailshots to save cash. “Candidates worried about giving up other work to campaign have been reassured that there won’t be much call on their time in any case,” a well-placed Conservative figure said.
A former Tory MEP who is now an MP said: “Most associations will not have allocated any resources in their budgets for this election. Normally fundraising is geared around such events but that hasn’t been possible. So associations will need central funding in spades but I’m not sure Central Office has it either for the same reasons. Money will have been allocated for Locals [the local elections on May 2]. I suspect this will be a phantom election at best. “I don’t envy the candidates from any party the prospect of taking part in a phoney election. When I stood there was broad indifference and a range of issues. Now there is maximum interest and only one issue. So I can’t fault candidates who don’t have the oomph . . . standing in an election is meant to mean something. It isn’t a placeholder while important people somewhere else dance about.”
The Independent Group was founded in February. Its 11 MPs — eight former Labour members and three former Conservatives — want to vet the background of each potential candidate carefully amid concerns that some with unknown and possibly contentious backgrounds could get through. There is only one full-time staff member, an active chief executive. One source said that there were comparatively limited resources: “We’re not going to be doing deals with people like the Lib Dems. We’re just going to make the argument.” In a statement on the close of applications, the Independent Group said: “We have been overwhelmed by the quantity and quality of applicants.”
Renew, a pro-EU centrist party that was launched in 2017, has announced that it will wind up operations and support Change UK, whose full title is Change UK — The Independent Group, once the Electoral Commission had approved it as a political party.
