Well, Ann wasn’t a local girl, but she’s a damned good MP

The row in the Stoke Labour Party over the selection of a non-local PPC, follows hot on the heels of my post yesterday on the ‘this is a local seat for local people’ argument. I am no great fan of Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe, but she certainly got the better of ‘local girl’ Lib Dem MP for Falmouth and Camborne Ms Julia Goldsworthy, when they debated the issue on the PM programme.  If we were to follow Ms Goldsworthy’s logic (if logic it is),  local people who fail to get selected to their local seat should give up their political ambitions. Ms Widdecombe ,who, unlike Ms Goldsworthy, was not a ‘local girl’  when she won her Maidstone seat (but seems to have done rather better than Ms Goldsworthy), made the obvious point that being a local was just one factor to be considered. ‘There’s a job to be done,’ said  the redoubtable Ms Widdecombe.  And, she added, the person best equipped to do that job should be selected, local or not. Indeed, being local can be a disadvantage.

She also make the important point that ‘local’ doesn’t mean much in a large rural constituency. So a PPC for the St Ives Constituency who has lived in West Cornwall, isn’t local to a voter on the Isles of Scilly or in Helston or on the Lizard. This is something Andrew George MP or  Conservative PPC Derek Thomas should think about when they make their born and bred ‘local boy’ pitch.