Tory chairman Greg Hands has vowed not to reopen the race to select the party’s London mayoral candidate, the Standard has learned.
Mr Hands gave the personal assurance at hustings in Kensington and Chelsea on Wednesday night after Dan Korski’s withdrawal left just Susan Hall and Moz Hossain battling for the right to take on Labour mayor Sadiq Khan in next May’s City Hall elections.
Mr Korski quit on Wednesday afternoon, saying a “false and unproven” allegation that he groped TV producer Daisy Goodwin in Downing Street a decade ago had made it impossible to carry on.
The Tory party announced on Wendesday night the selection race would not be restarted, a decision that Az Chowdhury, the campaign manager for Minister for London Paul Scully, who failed to make the shortlist, described as “unconscionable”.
Mr Scully sent his supporters an image of Wednesday’s Standard front page, which was headlined “Have the Tories given up on London?”, adding a message: “I’ve had enough too”.
He wrote: “Really disappointed CCHQ are doubling down on this headline by sticking to two candidates, trusting a handful of people with money and influence rather than members who truly know London.”
Samuel Kasumu, who also failed to make the shortlist, said: “The selection process should be reopened.”
Steve Norris, the Tory mayoral candidate in 2000 and 2004, told LBC: “We should rerun the process. Having a choice of two, however good they are, just isn’t reasonable or sensible.”
But Ms Hall, who is likely to cement her status as the frontrunner after Mr Korski’s withdrawal, told the Standard that it would be “incorrect” to restart the race.
“I have been reassured by the party chairman that it’s not going to happen, and by the deputy chairman [Tory MP Nickie Aiken]. Clare Hambro, the chair of the London board, has also said it is not going to be reopened.
“We were told right from the beginning that there could be either two or three candidates in the race. It was made clear to us that we might go down to two. We have already done 13 hustings meetings. We are more than halfway through. It would be incorrect to reopen it at this stage.”
Tory minister Neil O’Brien suggested that the party would look to improve its candidate vetting process, in light of the allegation against Mr Korski.
He told Times Radio: “Broadly speaking, of course, we need to take all of these kinds of things extremely seriously.
“The kind of behaviours that he is accused of are very, very serious and not a trivial thing at all. And we will look at anything to do with our vetting procedures that we can improve.”
Ms Hall, a London Assembly member, said: “I have got 17 years’ experience as a councillor. I have been leader of the GLA Tories. I have never done anything to cause issues for the party. A ‘boring’, experienced person who knows City Hall inside out is what is required to get London back on its feet.”
The party’s London board, which oversaw the shortlisting process, is due to meet over the next day or two to discuss the race. However one source told the Standard that it was incorrect to suggest it would seek to reverse the decision of party HQ.
“No agenda has been fixed for the meeting yet,” the source said. “My personal view is that we should continue with the two candidates.”
