UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman has won a key Conservative Party contest to be selected as the party’s candidate for her constituency in Hampshire, which will be redrafted in time for the next general election.
The British Indian minister, of Goan and Tamil heritage, went head-to-head with fellow Tory MP Flick Drummond in an internal party vote last week to decide the contestant from a new proposed constituency of Fareham and Waterlooville in Hampshire in the next general election – due by 2024-25.
Braverman said of her 77 to 54 win: “I am honoured and humbled to have been adopted by Conservatives members to be their Parliamentary Candidate for the new Fareham and Waterlooville constituency.
“I thank my Parliamentary colleague Flick Drummond MP for her excellent work for the people of Meon Valley.”
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The fight had been labelled as the “Battle of Waterlooville” – a reference to the Hampshire town within the new constituency boundaries.
Drummond said she was "incredibly disappointed" by the election result but said she would "continue to be Meon Valley MP" until the next election, a position she has held since 2019.
The selection vote comes as a number of constituency changes have been proposed across England as part of the 2023 Boundary Review, the final recommendations of which are due to be presented to the UK Parliament by July 1 to be adopted ahead of the next general election. The Boundary Commission for England says it has closed its “final consultation” and that it is analysing the feedback received.
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Under the Boundary Commission of England’s changes, Braverman’s original seat of Fareham in south-east England has been redrawn and Drummond’s Meon Valley is being scrapped.
