Tories to vote over MP's future

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Conservatives are to vote on whether to deselect the MP for North Wiltshire in a row over his leadership style and his affair with a countryside campaigner.

James Gray has described the claims against him as the work of "malign" individuals with "personal gripes".

He has called for voters to judge him on his record of work for the constituency and in the Commons.

Mr Gray admitted an affair while his wife, Sarah, was being treated for breast cancer. They are now divorcing.

Ballot papers are going out to members of the North Wiltshire Conservative Association on Friday.

I think the bulk of the association members will be judging me not on these silly points but on my record James Gray MP

It follows a ruling by the local party executive last November against him representing them in the next election.

Mr Gray said his marriage break-down had lost him some support, but believed members would judge him on his record.

The 52-year-old father-of-three had admitted having an affair with countryside campaigner Phillipa Mayo, while his wife Sarah, 51, was being treated for breast cancer.

A letter signed by two former association chairmen and a former deputy chair has been sent to party members, urging them to vote to deselect Mr Gray.

Accusations 'refuted'

In it, a former chairman, Jane Cox, said: "I have had to work with him since 1997. He was not a team player then and he is not one today."

Alison Davies, former deputy chairman, who also signed the letter, said: "At the beginning of the last General Election campaign he appointed himself campaign manager.

"At the end he wrote to the chairman of the volunteer management team that had worked tirelessly for him criticising the way the campaign had been run."

The letter was also signed by Major Frank Soden, who served as association chairman when the MP fought the last General Election.

But Mr Gray dismissed the accusations as, "easily refuted and some totally inaccurate".

He said the letter's signatories were, "malign individuals" who were motivated by "long held personal gripes."

"I think the bulk of the association members will be judging me not on these silly points but on my record," he said.

"I very much hope they will listen to my letter which I am sending out on Friday which sets out my parliamentary record."