PRITI PATEL SELECTED TO FIGHT WITHAM CONSTITUENCY
(20 November 2006)

On 20th November 2006, Asian woman Priti Patel was selected by the Conservative Party to fight for the new Witham Constituency seat. Patel has previously worked for former party leader William Hague in his Press Office dealing with media relations in London and the South East. It was reported that new Conservative Leader David Cameron had placed Priti Patel on an 'A-List' of Conservative Party candidates ahead of the next general election and that her selection marks the start of Cameron's campaign to change the face of party and get more women and black and ethnic minority candidates into Parliament.

ABOUT PRITI PATEL

Born in 1972 in the UK of Ugandan Indian immigrant parents, Priti Patel grew up in South Harrow and Ruislip, and joined the Conservative Party during the time John Major was Prime Minister. After graduating, Patel persuaded Andrew Lansley (now a frontbencher, then a Head of the Conservative Research Department) to give her a job at Conservative Central Office. From 1995 to 1997, she worked for the Referendum Party, for Sir James Goldsmith, heading up the press office.

After the 1997 General Election, the Conservative Party changed its policy on the Euro to being that they would only join the Euro if there was a referendum on the issue. The Referendum Party broke up, and Patel rejoined the Conservative Party to work for the new leader William Hague in his Press Office dealing with media relations in London and the South East. In the 2005 General Election, she stood as the Conservative Party candidate for Nottingham North. Since then she has tried, unsuccessfully, to be selected for the tory safe seat of Folkestone & Hythe and the marginal seat of Hove.

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