Guido has learned a significant group of senior East Surrey Conservatives have launched a no confidence bid against MP Sam Gyimah tonight. Following a Special Executive Meeting in Limpsfield tonight where Gyimah was summoned to account for recent actions, members were left dissatisfied with his explanation and have decided to give formal notice to the Association Chairman that a motion of no confidence will be brought against Gyimah. It will be voted on at the East Surrey AGM at the end of March…

Local members have been unhappy with Gyimah for some time, they say he is seldom seen at events in the constituency. One local member said Gyimah “treats us a vote source, not a community he wants to play a part in.” He is so rarely spotted that activists have taken to nicknaming him “Where’s Sam?”…

Local members are particularly aggrieved as they feel Gyimah was not honest with them about his resignation to support a second referendum. Gyimah first emailed his local party on 1st December to explain his resignation, with the email making no mention at all of his shift to Remain, despite him having endorsed a second referendum the same day. It was so ambiguously worded that many local members initially thought he had resigned to join the ERG…

After multiple complaints to the local Chair that Gyimah was telling members one thing while doing another in Westminster, Gyimah was asked to email members again on 14th January and the 28th, where he still failed to come clean about his support for a second referendum and even claimed that he had still not made his mind up about which Brexit option he was supporting:

“With so much in flux and events changing on a daily basis, I am yet to make a final decision on the different approaches being discussed in the media. My criteria for evaluating the options as we go forward are: I will support a deal that takes us out of the EU, that does not damage our interests, protects business (on which so many livelihoods in East Surrey depend), and is potentially negotiable with the EU… “…I have said that if parliament were unable to resolve the deadlock, then as a last resort, I will support giving the people a final say in a Second Referendum.”

This was the final straw for many members, anyone who reads the news was well aware that Gyimah was already a fully signed-up member of the second referendum brigade – he even launched the hapless ‘Right to Vote’ campaign alongside Phillip Lee on 17th January. Even this week he has still been telling local activists entirely contradictory things about his position. That frustration has now bubbled up to the surface, now it looks like Gyimah will have to face a ‘People’s Vote’ of his own…

UPDATE: Senior sources in the East Surrey Association have played down the significance of the no confidence bid, while there is unhappiness at his support for a second referendum they say that the Association as a whole is still generally supportive of Gyimah. The extent of that support will be revealed later this month…