London North East GLA Selection

Last night the officers of the Conservative constituencies for the boroughs within the London North East GLA seat met to shortlist their candidate for the 2008 GLA election. The North East London constituency is comprised of Hackney, Islington and Waltham Forest.

Currently the seat is held by Labour's Jenette Arnold. In the 2004 Election, the Conservatives were narrowly third place. Labour received 26.8%, LibDems received 17.3% with the Conservative Candidate Andrew Boff receiving 16.7%. In contrast in the 2000 elections for the constituency, the LibDems had been 3.3% ahead of us, so we definately are closing the gap.

We had eight applicants to review for the selection yesterday, and short listed them down to four candidates. One of the four is a member of the Islington Association. We won't release the names until the unsuccessful applicants have been notified.

The next stage in the Selection is a Question Time format meeting at the Walthamstow Conservative Club later in June. The event will hopefully be chaired by a high profile Conservative MP. We will update you when we have all the details!