Conservatives pull support for candidate Craig
It is believed that Mr Williams informed party activists last night via a What’s App message, and this morning the Conservatives have confirmed they have pulled the plug.
He is under investigation by the Gambling Commission for allegedly placing a bet on the July date for a General Election three days before the official announcement.
It means that the party will no longer endorse Mr Williams, but he will still appear on the ballot paper as a Conservative as the deadline has long passed to replace him. His office has informed us that he will be making a video statement later on today.
Mr Williams appeared in a hustings (pictured by reader, Gareth Jones, on the left) at Welshpool Livestock Sales yesterday afternoon alongside candidates from the five other political parties running.
Several have been calling for him to step down since the allegation last week of insider information, which is illegal, with other senior Tories and even a bodyguard for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak all under investigation.
If someone uses confidential information to gain an unfair advantage when betting, this could be a criminal offence under section 42 of the Gambling Act. Mr Williams admitted last week to the BBC that he had made "a huge error of judgment".
It means that the Conservatives won’t be represented in the local election, despite Mr Williams still being on the ballot with the party name.
It was a similar scenario when Labour withdrew its support for Azhar Ali, its candidate for February's Rochdale by-election, in the wake of comments he made about the October 7 attacks on Israel.
Labour couldn’t replace Mr Ali with another candidate because the deadline passed. He stood as a Labour candidate on the ballot paper, but if he had been elected he would have sat as an independent MP. In the end, he finished fourth with just 7.7% of the vote.
Here is what we have found courtesy of the Association of Electoral Administrators…
When a validly nominated political party candidate has their party’s support withdrawn after an election nomination deadline has passed, there is no legal mechanism to remove their name from the ballot paper.
If a candidate in these circumstances has opted to include a political party description and emblem on the ballot paper, by law this must also still be included.
The bottom line is the Returning Officer has no legal powers to amend the ballot paper or stop the election. Everything must continue as planned in line with electoral law.
No political information can be made available in polling stations. If voters ask, polling station staff may make a factual statement along the lines of: “Candidate X was validly nominated as the authorised candidate for Y party, so is included as that on the ballot paper.”
If the candidate is elected, the result would stand. They would take office in the usual way and could either serve as an independent Member of Parliament, join a political party or resign their seat.
If an MP changes party affiliation a by-election is not automatically triggered. If an MP chooses to resign, a by-election would be held, and if they so wished they could stand again as an independent candidate or for another political party.
The Montgomeryshire & Glyndwr candidates on the ballot paper:
Plaid Cymru: Elwyn Vaughan
Labour: Steve Witherden
Liberal Democrats: Glyn Preston
Reform UK: Oliver Lewis
Conservatives: Craig Williams
Green Party: Jeremy Brignell-Thorp
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|