Tory MP survives deselection attempt
By politics.co.uk staff
A Tory MP heavily implicated in the expenses scandal survived an attempt by some constituency party members to deselect her last night.
Anne Main, MP for St Albans, is still being investigated by the standards commissioner, but managed to survive to fight another day yesterday despite allowing her daughter to live rent-free in her publicly funded second home.
“I’m absolutely delighted to have had the overwhelming support of the association meeting and I will be continuing with my work on behalf of the people of St Albans,” she said after the vote.
“And I’m truly grateful for all the messages of support that I’ve had coming in from people who aren’t association members, who are the voters and representatives of St Albans.”
The chair of the constituency association resigned immediately after the vote.
The Conservative party scrutiny panel is deferring its ruling on Ms Main’s case until after John Lyon, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, completes his report.
The Conservatives have a majority of 1,361 over Labour in the constituency.
