Suella Braverman is struggling to find a seat in a traditionally ‘safe’ Conservative constituency, which could leave her in the political wilderness come the next election.
According to reports in The Times, the home secretary could be forced to move more than 70 miles to remain as an MP after potentially being snubbed by two safe seats.
She is set for a showdown when Tory members in the new seat of Fareham and Waterlooville, in Hampshire, vote on whether they want Braverman or Flick Drummond, the MP for Meon Valley, to represent them in parliament.
Local sources say they expected Drummond to win, which would leave Braverman looking for another constituency.
Drummond is in search of a seat after a boundary review abolished the area she currently represents and absorbed it into other areas.
If Braverman loses she will have to contest another seat, with Conservative sources suggesting she would have a better chance of victory in the neighbouring Hamble Valley seat against Paul Homes (who was elected as an MP in 2019).
It is thought the vote will take place next month.
A Tory MP for a nearby seat said that Braverman was not very good at “charming” the membership.
“Suella struggled to get selected anywhere,” they told The Times.
“She’s not a good selection performer. Her views are in line with the membership but she’s not very good at charming them, I’m not sure she’s member-friendly. She’s also been in the cabinet for quite a long time and that means your engagement with grassroots issues diminishes.”
“It’s a bit posher than you’d think, a bit less pro-Rwanda than you’d think. Even if the members there basically agree with her, they want to hear about softer stuff, not Rwanda. They’d rather have someone who they can have a nice chat to at an event about what was on TV that weekend.”
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