Wily Witham outfoxes the pack

WITHAM Conservatives are looking for an MP - they have to because it's a new a new seat in Mid Essex with bizarre boundaries either side of the A12 and the East Anglia main railway line and taking in territory from the current constituencies of Maldon & Chelmsford East, Braintree, Colchester, and Essex North. You'll find within it jam making Tiptree, Colchester Zoo, and the delightful villages of Kelvedon and Coggleshall, as well as Witham town itself.

90 Tories applied to become candidate - it's a seat with a Tory majority estimated at around 7,500, but in a good year will return a Conservative by between 12,000 and 15,000. In other words, pleasant pastures just 35 minutes by train from Liverpool Street.

Of that 90, 71 have been eliminated including, rather oddly, former shadow education spokesman Tim Collins, who has Essex connections. Why? No-one seems to know, although I suspect the Tory selectors decided that anyone regarded as the favourite is not at all welcome and they probably don't want an MP who lost his seat to the Lib Dems banging on their doors.

Anne McIntosh, one time Tory Euro MP for the area and MP for the Vale of York, which disappears under the same boundary changes that have created Witham, didn't get an interview. Anne is a moderate pro-European, which is certainly not what Witham Tories want. Blood and thunder Eurosceptics will go down a treat here, which is why Euro MP Geoffrey Van Orden has made the prelimianary cut, even though he's 61.

Local candidates Sarah Candy and Kevin Bentley could make the short list. Don't rule out Iain Dale, founder of Politico's publishing house, who has strong Essex links, Kit Malthouse - one of the big cheeses on Westminster City Council - or James Brokenshire, who valiantly gained Hornchurch from Labour at the last election, only to see it disappear before his eyes under boundary changes in London.

We'll know on Tuesday who has reached the next round. If the short-list is the six names I've mentioned, then Witham Tories will have riches indeed to pick from in the final round.

I suspect Witham's views of David Cameron's A list are unprintable, which is why some names have not made it through the process of sifting the applicants. My advice to candidates is: don't go to the meeting wearing green. And I reckon anyone who mentions David Davis's name in their speech, will be marked up highly.