By our Sutton political editor, BELLE MONT
Councillor Tom Drummond, the leader of the Conservative opposition group on Sutton Council, was last night selected to replace MP Paul Scully as the Tories’ candidate in Sutton and Cheam in the upcoming General Election.
The Conservatives have held the seat since Scully beat Liberal Democrat Paul Burstow in the first, post-colaition election in 2015.
Family man: Tory parliamentary candidate Tom Drummond has worked closely with MP Paul Scully
Drummond, a jiu-jitsu brown belt, aged 50, was up against former Twickenham MP Tania Mathias and Jed Dwight. For Dwight, a former councillor in Sutton, it was his sixth defeat in a Tory parliamentary selection process.
Sources in the meeting have told Inside Sutton that Drummond excelled in the Q&A sessions with party members.
Drummond has been a councillor in Worcester Park North ward since 2018 and was elected as group leader on the council in October 2020. Married with two teenaged children, his wife, Jo, works in Scully’s office… So no political nepotism going on here then.
Sutton and Cheam is expected to be another closely contested London seat at the General Election, between the Tories and LibDems.
Scully announced his decision not to stand again as an MP in March (on the morning after he encountered Inside Croydon’s editor in an Addiscombe pub; the two events may or may not be connected). He had a majority of 8,351 and 50% of the vote in 2019.
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Wife works in PR man Scully’s office. No chance of any priming of answers going on there then. Send for Bullbag Drummond to save the Tories. No typo here.