Even some senior Tories appear to agree: the selection process for their mayoral candidate was a shambles. That’s the most credible conclusion to be drawn from the decision to order an internal review into the London party, following criticism from MPs over how the contest was managed.
This appears to represent a change in tone from the Conservatives, who have for weeks rejected any criticism of the selection following the surprise exclusion of London minister Paul Scully and the withdrawal of Daniel Korski.
This morning, chairman Greg Hands suggested the review was merely into the London party’s “campaigning machine”. Yet inquiries tend not to be launched into great successes. For that reason, this is hardly a ringing endorsement of the nominee, Susan Hall, either.
Senior Tories, including Mr Hands, were highly critical of press coverage during the contest — not least of the Evening Standard. That the chairman has now seen fit to order a review into the London party suggests some Tories may, in fact, have shared our view.
This matters to Londoners because our city will only be best served when it can attract the highest calibre candidates from both parties.
Defending our data
There can be few arenas more critical to our democracy and way of life than the sanctity of the voting process. For that reason, many people will be understandably alarmed at a massive cyber attack on the UK’s election registers.
Details of tens of millions of voters may have been accessed by bad actors, who targeted the Electoral Commission. The hack allowed attackers to reference copies of the electoral register, which includes the names and addresses of people registered to vote between 2014 and 2022. T
he Electoral Commission states that there has been “no impact” on the security of our elections, partly because our voting systems are relatively dispersed and reliant on paper documentation as well as manual counting.
However, this must be a reminder, for the public sector as well as private, that foreign criminals, some linked to hostile states, are dedicating vast resources to attack our critical infrastructure, and so our defences must be up to the task.
Bad air day
If you think the skies over London have been something of a disappointment this summer, consider yourself fortunate not to be the Texas woman injured after a hawk dropped a snake on her, after which she was attacked by both creatures.
Dull clouds and the odd spot of rain are no longer the worst-case scenario.
