OnTheWight has secured access to the Motion, sent to members of the Executive of the Isle of Wight Conservative Association (IWCA), that sought to frustrate Andrew Turner’s future as the Conservative candidate for the Island.
The paperwork, which OnTheWight has been pursuing for a number of weeks and has remained a closely-guarded secret, is embedded below.
Details of ‘The Motion’
There are two documents. The first, the Motion, opens by requesting the Executive, “Not formally adopt Andrew Turner as the candidate for the 2014 General Election.” It goes onto quote a selection of the Association Rules, requesting that ‘at least’ two other candidates are selected to run alongside Andrew Turner, as this gives the Association membership, “a genuine choice”.
It also encourages the Executive to urge Andrew Turner not to exercise his right, under the rules, to carry out a Yes / No ballot of the membership in support or otherwise of him as the candidate for 2013.
‘Rational for the Motion’
The second document is the ‘Rational for the motion …’. It cites a number of “public interventions from close associates of Andrew Turner MP which have worded against the best interests of the Party”.
The list of items published follows, although it’s notable that someone has exercised quite a talent to have compiled the list without mentioning the news publication that broke the details of the attempt to oust Andrew Turner at all.
Items of note
You can, of course, read the whole document yourself (below), but there were two items that stood out. First of them is that Andrew Turner is accused of an “apparent reluctance to clamp down on or distance himself from such interventions”.
The other was more detail about giving him no choice but to run against a selection of national candidates:
“We believe that this should be a genuine choice. This would not be achieved by undertaking a full postal ballot of the Association membership based on a yes / no decision on whether the sitting MP is re-adopted.
“In the absence of an alternative to consider it is not possible to make a genuine choice in favour of the sitting MP (or otherwise), and we do not consider that such an approach would sufficiently settle the matter and bring unity to the Association, nor the perception of such.
“Whilst we recognise that the sitting MP has a right to request a postal ballot of the Association membership, we hope he will accept that this “fait accompli” approach will not bring about the unity which he has called for; nor would it give him a strengthened mandate to go forward as the preferred candidate from a genuine choice-based decision of the membership.”
Names on the paper
Those who put this document forward are named: Gary Taylor (Representative, Approved Council Candidates’ List); Dona Ratcliff (Association President); David Williams (Chairman, Shanklin Branch); Colin Lillywhite (Chairman, Freshwater and Totland Branch); Edward Giles (Trustee) [non-voting capacity].
It’s some of these names, plus that of ex-Isle of Wight councillor, Alan Wells, who are being asked by some to consider their future in the local party.
“Their positions are untenable”
A senior figure told OnTheWight, “The Association President, Dona Ratcliff, who put her name to the Motion; along with a Trustee, Edward Giles; and the Association Chair, Alan Wells, who circulated the motion and the covering memo, should now stand aside.
“Their positions are untenable. We need a new team of officers, who back Andrew 100% and can lead a united party in to the most important General Election for a generation.”
We’ve written to Dona Ratcliff, Edward Giles and Alan Wells, for their reaction, but have yet to hear back from them.
The Motion
The Rational
Image: © IslandMP
