Lesbian Tory ‘feels at home’ after selection
PinkNews.co.uk Exclusive
Conservative Party Vice-Chairman Margot James has spoken of her delight at being selected to contest the Stourbridge seat at the next general election, claiming it will be like “going home.”
Ms James, the party’s first openly lesbian female candidate at the last election, will fight Labour MP Lynda Waltho for the Black Country constituency of Stourbridge, a key Conservative target, after being selected by the local party last week.
She told PinkNews.co.uk “I am delighted and very excited to have been chosen to contest Stourbridge for the Tories.
“I am a Midlander so it will feel like going home. I am moving to the constituency in the New Year.”
The seat is a key marginal, with the Tories less than 700 votes behind Labour at the 2005 election. If sitting MP Ms Waltho remains Labour candidate at the next election, it will see two women as the main contenders for the seat.
Ms James, a successful businesswoman, is one of the more high profile names on the “Tory A List” of candidates which includes Conservatives expected to receive priority treatment in the selection process to represent winnable seats during the next General Election.
She recently failed in an effort to be selected in West Worcestershire and also lost out in the contest for the Holborn and St Pancras constituency in the May 2005 election.
Earlier this year, Margot James, a Kensington and Chelsea councillor, told PinkNews.co.uk that she is concentrating on her campaign to become elected to the House of Commons.
It came after rumours that she would run for London Mayor in 2008, she said: “Parliament is my goal.
“I think that I will better serve the party from Parliament.”
