Tory HQ receives complaints after new mother MP Theo Clarke is deselected by local activists

Tory headquarters has received complaints over the treatment of new mother MP Theo Clarke amid claims she has been subject to a ‘campaign of misogny’.

The Stafford MP was last month rejected by local Conservative members as their candidate for the next general election.

It came just days after the 37-year-old returned to the House of Commons from maternity leave after giving birth to her daughter last August.

During her maternity leave, Ms Clarke revealed she had received dozens of phone calls from angry constituents who berated her for taking time off from Parliament.

She has since linked local anger at her maternity leave to her effective deselection by party activists last month.

Theo Clarke was last month rejected by local Conservative members as their candidate at the next general election

The Stafford MP insisted her deselection has ‘nothing to do with Boris’ amid claims those who helped to oust Boris Johnson as prime minister last year are being targeted by local activists

Ms Clarke, the niece of ex-Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, has vowed to push her reselection bid to a vote of the full Tory membership within her constituency

A source told The Times that Ms Clarke had been subject to a ‘campaign of misogyny’.

The newspaper also reported at least five complaints have been sent to Tory headquarters over her treatment.

Duncan Sandbrook, chairman of the Stafford Conservative Association, has dismissed claims the failure to reselect Ms Clarke was due to unhappiness with her maternity leave.

A statement said: ‘Stafford Conservative Association would like to make it unequivocally clear that it fully supports a woman’s right to take maternity leave. 

‘The Association is not party to any information that proves there is a factual basis for this claim; should evidence be presented to the association supporting these allegations, these instances will be dealt with commensurately.’

The local party also insisted that ‘at no stage’ was Ms Clarke’s maternity leave mentioned during last month’s selection meeting, other than by the MP herself. 

‘The idea that the widespread and long-standing dissatisfaction with Ms Clarke as MP for Stafford, that has led to her failure to be re-adopted, is the result of her decision to take maternity leave, is both false and abhorrent,’ the statement added.

Ms Clarke has insisted her deselection has ‘nothing to do with Boris’ amid claims Tory MPs who helped to oust Boris Johnson as prime minister last year are being targeted by local activists. 

She quit as Mr Johnson’s trade envoy to Kenya in July last year following the row over the then PM’s handling of sexual harassment allegations relating to Chris Pincher.

Ms Clarke, the niece of ex-Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, has vowed to push her reselection bid to a vote of the full Tory membership within her constituency.

She is not the only current serving Tory MP to have recently been rejected by their local party.

Damian Green, who was Theresa May’s deputy when she was PM, is also among those not to have been automatically readopted as a general election candidate.