Tories select Tolhurst to lose against Mark Reckless again

The Conservatives have selected Kelly Tolhurst to fight Mark Reckless MP for the Rochester & Strood seat in May.

The Rochester & Strood by-election was UKIP's second by-election victory in 2014 and Tolhurst threw away a 21% Tory majority to lose by almost 3,000 votes, or 7.3%. This is one the Tories will be desperate to take back because Mark Reckless has nothing like the personal vote Douglas Carswell had in Clacton so they'll see it as Conservative -v- UKIP rather than Tolhurst -v- Reckless.