The Chairman of the Isle of Wight Conservative Association (IWCA) has written to Executive members of the IWCA with a motion that presents Isle of Wight MP Andrew Turner with an ultimatum.
“No longer have confidence”
OnTheWight has the paperwork (below) that shows that a motion has been tabled for the next meeting of the IWCA Executive Meeting that says they “no longer have confidence in Mr Turner’s candidature and requests him to stand down as the candidate with immediate effect.”
If he doesn’t pay attention to this – they give him until midday on Monday 26th January 2015 to resign as the candidate for the next (2015) election – they will start the process to deselect him.
The message couldn’t be more clear, but this cannot be carried out straight away. It would still have to be voted on and accepted by the IWCA Executive before it could be put in motion.
Survivable?
To have such a clear message from the most senior people in your party would appear to be near-impossible to come back from.
The launch of Andrew Turner’s re-election campaign is due to take place on Monday (12th), still being orchestrated by Chris Whitehouse.
Sources close to the IWCA have told OnTheWight they think it’s more likely Turner will resign before then, or at that meeting.
Key sections of text
Full text is below, but the key parts are (our emphasis)
The Executive Council can no longer have confidence in Mr Turner’s candidature and requests him to stand down as the candidate with immediate effect so that a replacement candidate can be selected with the minimum of delay in order to fulfil the object of the Association to secure the return of a Conservative candidate at May’s General Election.
“In the event that Mr Turner has not resigned as the candidate by 12.00 noon on Monday 26th January 2015 the Executive Council requests the Chairman of the Association to exercise his authority under clause 10.1.1 of the Association Rules to call a Special General Meeting.
“Having regard to clause 10.4 of the Rules the period of notice for the meeting shall be such as the majority of the Officers, or such as are available for consultation, consider appropriate in the circumstances.
“The stated business of the meeting shall be to advise the members of the Association of this resolution of the Executive Council and to consider whether they wish to endorse it and to require Mr Turner to resign as the candidate immediately.
“If such a Special General Meeting is called Mr Turner shall be requested to address the meeting and to answer questions from the members prior to a vote being taken.”
Chairman’s report
Meeting agenda and ‘no confidence’ motion
Image: Screen grab from parliamentlive.tv coverage of 13 October 2014 debate
