Tory seat selection mail vanishes

A duck island like the one claimed for by Sir Peters Viggers MP

Hundreds of invitations to a meeting over the selection of a Tory candidate to replace "duck house" MP Sir Peter Viggers have gone missing.

Some letters from the Conservatives' central office to 48,000 households in Gosport, Hampshire, arrived too late for them to register their attendance.

The open session on Friday evening will be residents' last chance to hear directly from the four contenders.

Gosport Conservatives apologised adding the need to register had been waived.

Resident Chris Hope said his letter arrived on Tuesday afternoon but the deadline to register was midday on Wednesday.

"I did some chasing around and finally got in touch with the Conservative Association to find that the chairman hadn't even had his letter yet," he said.

We'd like to apologise for a set of circumstance that has led to delays Peter Langdon Gosport Conservative councillor

"Yesterday I did some more chasing up, and still some people hadn't had it.

"I understand now that if you ring up you can get hold of a ticket and they've cancelled the registration requirement, but it doesn't seem to have gone very well."

Gosport Conservative councillor Peter Langdon, who organised the event, said: "We'd like to apologise for a set of circumstances that has led to delays.

"They were actually posted out by Electoral Reform Services last week, and it would appear that the last batch of these letters only appeared in the sorting office in Gosport at 10.30 on Wednesday morning.

"I think there's still some to deliver now."

He said anyone who wanted to attend should ring or e-mail the Gosport Conservatives' Association.

The candidates are James Bethell, Caroline Dinenage, Samuel Phillip Gyimah and Julia Manning.

People have until 3 December to vote by returning a ballot paper.

Among those who applied to be a candidate was Stanley Johnson, the father of London Mayor Boris Johnson.

Sir Peter Viggers was forced to stand down at the next election by Mr Cameron after his expenses claims were published by the Daily Telegraph, including £1,645 for a floating duck house.

The 71-year-old was first elected to Parliament as MP for Gosport in February 1974.