Conservative campaign staff are “going to make mistakes”, the Tory party chairman has admitted in the wake of a leaked CCHQ email blaming MPs for the poor start to the race.
Conservative central office recalled an email which claimed ministers and MPs were failing to “get behind” the campaign and refusing to knock on doors, the Times reported on Monday.
Party chairman Richard Holden told City A.M. the CCHQ email was “sent out in error” and “recalled immediately” and added that in a “busy campaign, staff are going to make mistakes”.
Speaking during a canvassing session in Chingford and Woodford Green, former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith’s constituency, Holden said: “Obviously I think a spokesman has already echoed all the details in that.
“Staff will send out things by error at certain points. The important thing is that I think in this instance, it was recalled immediately.
“Apologies were communicated to everybody involved. But you know, a busy campaign, staff are gonna make mistakes as part of it.”
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It came amid a day of questions for the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on his announcement of plans to bring back national service, with 18-year-olds compelled to either spend a year in the army or one weekend a month volunteering in their local community.
Holden did not directly address suggestions that parents could face fines for their adult children refusing to take part in the scheme.
“I mean, there’s lots of very good questions about this,” he said. “The truth is, what we’ve said is, we’ll establish a Royal Commission to look into all the different aspects of it.
“I think that’s fair enough, because this is going to be a big step change.”
On candidate selection, Holden dismissed concerns over reports the party and CCHQ needs to find some 150 candidates within days to fill seats across the country.
He insisted: “All of these people have been vetted already through the candidates process.
“There’s well over 1,000 people on the Conservative candidates list as it is, and it’s just about getting them in the right place.”
And he added: “Realistically within that number there’s also… there’s about 20 or 30, which are either seats we hold, or are seats we’re really targeting.
“Obviously, I want everybody to vote Conservative in the rest of the seats, but those are seats which are more of a stretch for us to win at the election.
“So there’s actually a much smaller number of the ones we’d need to get sorted out.”
On national service, Labour’s shadow paymaster general, Jonathan Ashworth, said: “The Tory campaign is in absolute chaos, with more positions on their flagship policy than the Kama Sutra.
“Now, Tory MPs are arguing among themselves about whether they are going to arrest parents, whether it will apply to Northern Ireland and how much it will cost.
“It is a shambles, total chaos, and the country deserves so much better.”
A Conservative Party spokesman told the Times: “As you would expect a huge number of reports and emails are compiled and sent daily.
“The email was sent in error and immediately recalled. Those who received it have been contacted with an apology.”