Local Conservative activists have asked Dominic Grieve to apply for re-adoption as the party’s 2022 General Election candidate, in their latest attempt to oust the MP over his anti-Brexit stance.
Chairman of Beaconsfield ‘s Conservative group, Jackson Ng, wrote on Friday night: “As the Chairman of the Beaconsfield Constituency Conservative Association, I understand that there are feelings of disappointment, anger and frustration from many of our membership.
“Therefore, following this evening’s Special General Meeting and on behalf of our Executive Council, I have immediately written to our MP Dominic Grieve QC to formally request that he now submits a written application to us to seek his re-adoption as our Parliamentary Candidate for the next General Election expected in 2022.”
The former attorney-general, who is a leader of the ‘Remain Rebels’ in the House of Commons and is pushing for a second referendum, had lost a constituency confidence vote in March by 182 to 131 votes.
Mr Grieve is not the only Conservative MP to be facing action by local party associations over their anti-Brexit stance, with media reporting on Friday that justice secretary David Gauke is to face the same procedure from the Conservative association in his South West Hertfordshire constituency on June 28th.
However, these local procedures cannot force the MPs from their seats either now or prevent them from running in those constituencies in three years’ time, with party chairman Brandon Lewis telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday: “They’re not actually facing deselection, that’s not what’s happening.
“Within our party’s rules [these votes] don’t actually have any direct meaning, it’s a difficult process for the party to be going through and I’d rather not be seeing that.”
“At that point the association will take a view and it is a matter for the local association. We will not do those readoption processes at the moment,” he added.
Mr Grieve will be given the opportunity to state his cast for re-adoption as the constituency’s Tory Party national election candidate, with the local executive then voting on a motion of whether to re-adopt Mr Grieve. If his application is rejected, he may face challenges from other Tories to represent the Beaconsfield seat.