A letter printed in the West Sussex County Times asked why Horsham Labour Party did not select somebody from within the constituency to be its parliamentary candidate.Horsham Labour Party's chair, David Hide, responded in this letter which was printed in today's paper.
I would like to thank Peter Hillman (letter May 8) for providing me with the opportunity to explain to your readership why Horsham Labour Party selected Andrew Skudder to be our parliamentary candidate.
First and foremost we selected Andrew because, as a result of a democratic process involving all our members, Andrew came top of the ballot. We could have selected someone with a Horsham Postal address but on the night the strongest candidate lived just outside of Horsham.
Andrew lives within 100m of the constituency boundary and closer to Horsham town centre than much of the electorate and considerably closer to both Horsham and Westminster than our current MP.
The current MP would face immediate disqualification under Peter Hillman's criteria of being 'local' having been born in Oxford and owning a second and third home in London.
Being from the constituency you represent has never been the principal reason why a political party selects a candidate to fight an election, it is all about the qualities of candidate and his or her commitment to stand up for the local electorate.
Again I can reassure the residents of Horsham that Andrwe will be very happy to remain living within 100m of Horsham constituency boundary at his own and not taxpayers' expense.
David Hide
Chair
Horsham Labour Party
