The Conservative A-List or Priority List was a list of United Kingdom candidates drawn up by Conservative Central Office at the behest of David Cameron after his election as party leader in December 2005, aimed as a means of broadening the number of Conservative Members of Parliament, potential Peers of the Realm and MEPs from minority groups and women as well as other preferred candidates for candidature. Where the preferred forums for selection were held at least two members from the list were put to every open primary, and where these were not held the A-list were recommended directly, particularly to the top target seats.
Contents
History
In April 2006, a Conservative Party committee on candidates set out to deliver a promise by David Cameron to transform the Conservative party at Westminster. The committee reduced 500 aspiring politicians on the party's list of approved parliamentary candidates to an "A-list" of between 100 and 150 priority candidates. The result was a list on which more than half of the names were of women. The list included the former Coronation Street actor Adam Rickitt, the environmentalist Zac Goldsmith, the author Louise Bagshawe (later Mensch), and Margot James.
Amid controversy the "A-list" approach was endorsed by Michael Portillo, a Conservative MP until 2005, who in 2006 said that
Conservative chairmen and activists in seats considered potentially winnable were in the run-up to the 2010 election urged by Conservative Central Office to select candidates from the new A-list and were in many cases included in open primaries, new and preferred open-to-all selection meetings.
The 2010 general election saw failures as well as successes for the "A-listers" selected for 'winnable' seats. Success was epitomised by, for example, Zac Goldsmith in Richmond Park, but failure by Joanne Cash, Philippa Stroud and Shaun Bailey.
Listed
Those on the 'A' List included the following: '*' marks people chosen for seats that were Conservative before 2010