The Candidates

Abstract

Most M.P.s are selected, not elected. The great majority of M.P.s sit for safe seats. Since 1945 the Conservatives have never had less than 215 seats: Labour has never had less than 258. In two-thirds of constituencies, at the very least, the outcome in normal times is beyond doubt. In fact as the 1964 election approached only about 100 of the 630 seats were being treated as potentially marginal by the party headquarters in London. Membership of parliament depends, therefore, far more on those unpublicised bodies, the constituency selection committees, than on the electorate.¹ Selection committees were hard at work from 1959 onwards. But their main job was to pick losers — very few M.P.s had their renomination challenged and the great majority of M.P.s stood again and were re-elected.