Crispin Blunt

Conservative Party | Reigate

Sir Malcolm rifkind withdraws from leadership race. Crispin Blunt will poll his local association

Sir Malcolm Rifkind today withdraws from the contest to lead the Conservative Party. Crispin Blunt, MP for Reigate, had been Sir Malcolm's campaign manager. He will now poll the members of the Reigate and Banstead Conservative association in order to help him make a decision as to which candidates should go forward to the final ballot of Conservative Party members. He issued the following letter to members of the Conservative association today:

To All Members of the Reigate and Banstead Conservative Association 
                                                                11th October 2005

 

Dear Association Member,

CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP ELECTION

You will probably have been aware that I until today I have been supporting Sir Malcolm Rifkind in his campaign to become the next leader of our Party.  Sadly he has today announced that he will not be putting his name forward for the Parliamentary ballot as there is insufficient support to give him any realistic prospect of success.

The Parliamentary ballot will now reduce the remaining four anticipated candidates to two, and you will then have a vote, along with all other members of the Party, to determine our leader from these two candidates.  The timing of the contest is that the two parliamentary ballots will take place on Tuesday 18th  and Thursday 20th October, and the postal ballot of the membership will conclude on 5th December 2005.

Phil Hitchens, the Association Chairman, and I would be grateful to get an indication of which of the two candidates you would like to see in the final. Your views may well influence how I vote in the two parliamentary rounds.  This would not have been the case whilst Sir Malcolm was a candidate which is why I have not conducted this exercise until now.  However time is short and if you would like to help me establish the overall outlook of the Association please could you return the enclosed ballot paper to me by return.  The very latest an indication of your view will be useful will be if it arrives on Tuesday morning, so the first class post on Monday is the effective deadline.

Please rank the candidates in your order of preference, 1, 2, 3, 4.  You will note the ballot papers are numbered.  No record has been kept of which ballot paper has been sent to which member, the numbering is merely to prevent the result being skewed by an over-enthusiastic supporter of one or more of the candidates!

You will receive this letter in a franked House of Commons envelope, but since it is a party political issue, rather than a strictly Parliamentary one I will be ensuring the House of Commons is reimbursed the cost of this mailing.  That is why I am afraid there is no reply paid envelope!

                        Yours Ever,

                                                Crispin