Tories pick local councillor for Selby and Ainsty seat after Johnson ally quits | Politics

The Tories have named a local councillor as their candidate in the upcoming Selby and Ainsty byelection, triggered by the resignation of a Boris Johnson ally.

Nigel Adams, who had already confirmed his plans to retire at the next general election, last week announced he was standing down with immediate effect.

The Conservatives are now facing four byelections as a result of resignations.

Councillor Claire Holmes, who works as a lawyer, will stand in Adams’s North Yorkshire seat after the previous Conservative candidate, Michael Naughton, withdrew his nomination due to a family emergency.

Holmes told BBC News: “I know right now people want an MP who’ll only focus on improving our local communities across Selby and Ainsty – not on political point scoring in Westminster.

“That means I will work with Rishi Sunak and the government on our five clear priorities: halving inflation, growing the economy, reducing debt, cutting hospital waiting lists and stopping the boats.”

Adams, 56, had been nominated by the former prime minister for a peerage, but did not make the final list. Others reportedly blocked included Nadine Dorries, the MP for Mid Bedfordshire, who has also said she will step down but has refused to officially resign until she gets answers from ministers about why she did not get her peerage.

The Bedfordshire police and crime commissioner Festus Akinbusoye will fight the seat for the Conservatives against Labour’s Alistair Strathern, who works at the Bank of England.

The Liberal Democrats say they are the main challengers in the seat, where Dorries had a 24,000 majority, but are still to declare a candidate.

In Selby in the 2019 general election, Adams won the seat with 33,995 votes and Labour candidate Malik Rofidi came second with 13,858, beating candidates representing the Lib Dems, the Yorkshire party and the Greens.

Holmes will stand against 25-year-old Labour candidate Keir Mather, who most recently worked at the Confederation of British Industry, in a byelection on 20 July – the same day as a byelection will be held in Johnson’s Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency.

The Tories have already announced local councillor Steve Tuckwell will be their candidate in the west London seat, with Labour having chosen charity worker Danny Beales to fight for a seat where Johnson had a 7,200 majority.

Meanwhile, the resignation of Tory MP David Warburton, who was suspended from the party in April 2022 pending the outcome of an independent complaints and grievance scheme investigation into allegations of harassment and drug use, on Saturday triggered a fourth byelection for Sunak.

Warburton was MP for Somerton and Frome in Somerset, which he won with a 19,000 majority.