The Conservative association chairman of Sir Grant Shapps’s former constituency has told the JC the exclusion of the Jewish ex-cabinet minister from the Conservative Party candidacy for the next election is “unfathomable”.
Welwyn Hatfield Conservative Association chair Simon Wrenn was speaking after it emerged last month that the former defence secretary had not been selected to stand as a Parliamentary candidate.
Shapps had served as MP from the constituency from 2005 until losing to his Labour rival in the last general election in 2024.
He held a number of senior cabinet positions throughout his time in parliament including transport secretary, home secretary and business secretary.
The exclusion of Shapps has riled some local Tories.
Wrenn said: “I've had dozens of local members write to me, some of whom have campaigned for Conservative candidates for 50 years, who are completely astonished. Many say they will not campaign for another candidate. Many are considering resigning. Some have resigned.”
It comes after the fallout from the decision to adopt a former neo-Nazi as a local council candidate in Somerset, Joshua Bonehill-Paine, who is now reformed and works in countering extremism.
He was dropped amid outrage over his previous convictions for racially aggravated harassment, assault and burglary, and after one of his victims, Baroness Berger, reacted with horror.
The former Labour MP said: “I’m all for rehabilitation. But someone convicted of -neo-Nazi misogynistic crimes is not suitable for public office less than a decade after his conviction. And neither should he be gifted a national advisory role, even closer to power.”
Wrenn, 49, who has been chair of the association for the past two years and an active member for the best part of a decade, has written to the chair of the Conservative Party to question the decision over Shapps but said he has yet to receive a response.
He said: “If we don't have the ability to select the person who's been the Conservative MP for 19 years in Welwyn Hatfield, then clearly …It's clearly a removal of choice for those local members.”
Alluding to the juxtaposition of Shapps’s exclusion and the row over Bonehill-Paine, Wrenn said: “The optics of it are horrible.”
Wrenn suggested Shapps’s exclusion could cost the Conservatives “several thousand” votes at the next general election owing to his name recognition in Welwyn Hatfield in comparison to other potential candidates.
The Conservative Party has been contacted for comment.
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