Caroline Spelman has not been especially popular with grassroots Tories following her decision to add her name to the Cooper-Letwin Bill seeking to delay Brexit, despite insisting less than two weeks earlier that she was “clear that I want to see no further delay to the country leaving the EU”. Funnily enough trying to take power away from your own party’s government and hand it to an unaccountable group of cross-party MPs isn’t a popular move with your activists…

Under the Conservative Party Constitution, sitting Conservative MPs have to be formally re-adopted by their local Associations before each election, although the rules are slightly vague around the precise procedural details. Normally this is a formality but with many long-standing Tory members angry and upset with the actions of some of their MPs on Brexit they have become more contentious events…

Guido has got wind that senior members of Spelman’s Meriden Association are trying to sneak through her reselection on the quiet to avoid any objections from local members. Local sources say that pro-Spelman members of the local Association Executive have been working to put together a quorum on the sly for a meeting tomorrow lunchtime in order to rush Spelman’s reselection through without alerting the general membership. Surely local members should at least be given the chance to have their say?