Tories to adopt Totnes rules
Normally, the local Conservative party committee makes the choice but, after existing MP Anthony Steen hit national headlines after claiming £80,000 in expenses which included costs on the upkeep of his luxury home, and then claimed the public was "jealous", David Cameron took drastic action.
Realising that the issue could drive voters away from the Tories, he decided to engage the public in the selection process, regardless of the voters' political persuasion. All 69,000 residents can vote through a postal ballot, after three candidates were selected by the committee.
It will cost up to £40,000, and will see Torbay's directly elected mayor, Nick Bye, go up against Sara Randall Johnson, leader of East Devon District Council, and Dartmoor GP Sarah Wollaston. All three will go head-to-head at a primary which is open to all at Paignton's Torbay Leisure Centre, from 10am this morning. The venue can hold around 900, and attendees will be checked against the electoral register. The key issues will be how many people attend, and crucially, how many choose to vote.
Heather Burwin, chairman of the Totnes Constituency Conservatives Association, said all voters had received a leaflet on the contenders, and must now vote by July 30 before an independent body counts votes. An announcement is expected on August 1.
She had early misgivings about the complex nature of the process, particularly feeling that it would delay matters, but said public approval had won her over. She said: "We are an experiment, and that's not a very comfortable place to be, but the trick is to get good candidates, which I think we've done, and to make it work." But she said it was still a "calculated risk".
She admitted £40,000 sounds like an "absolute fortune", and speculated it may mean that it cannot become standard practice for selecting candidates.
She said members "overwhelmingly" felt "very, very disappointed" at Anthony Steen's behaviour, but said he had been an "excellent" MP. She said the party now wanted to move forward, and get behind the new candidate.
The campaign group Vote for Change, which lobbies for a new voting system, said the new method only presented the "illusion of choice", saying candidates did not have enough time to campaign.
But Mrs Burwin said she had been as open as possible. Although the committee must ratify the public vote, it is expected they will back the decision.
They are choosing between two council leaders, each with a wealth of political experience, and a GP who admits she has "none whatsoever". Dr Sarah Wollaston said she may never have entered the race if she had known beforehand that she would be plunged in at the deep end by the experiment, but said voters now had a choice on whether they want a career politician or "someone with a real job".
Nick Bye is already well-known around Torbay as the resort's first directly- elected mayor. Much of the Bay overlaps the newly-drawn boundary line of the Totnes seat, but some of his decisions have been subjected to negative scrutiny in the local media.
He insists voters "take it with a pinch of salt", and continue to support him.
Sara Randall Johnson is leader of East Devon District Council, but insists she has strong ties to South Devon, and a solid understanding of the issues affecting it.
