Former Conservative Jewish MP reportedly rejected after party selection application

Grant Shapps is understood to have been unsuccessful in his attempt to be considered for a run as a Tory candidate at the next general election

The Conservatives are understood to have rejected an application by former senior Jewish MP – who previously held the position of party chair – to stand as a candidate for the next election.

Grant Shapps, the former MP for Welwyn Hatfield, who served as the UK’s Defence Secretary from August 2023 until the general election in July 2024, is believed to have failed the party’s assessment for its seat selection process, as reported by The Spectator.

When asked about the report, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said that “you wouldn’t expect me to be commenting on anybody’s application for candidates and to be speculating about rumours. What I will say…is that we’re going to be announcing candidates shortly, and you will see that this is a very different party from the one that was removed from government in 2024.”

In September 2024, Jewish News reported that Shapps, who grew up in Watford to a United Synagogue attending family and was leader of his local BBYO branch as a teenager, was interested in a potential return as an MP, with a Conservative MP for a nearby seat having reportedly told friends they were not planning to serve out their full five year term. At the time, a source close to Shapps told Jewish News that a report in The Times about his wish to return to Westminster was “not incorrect.”

Shapps, who also served very briefly as Home Secretary under Liz Truss, was one of 175 Conservative MPs who lost their seats in the general election two years ago. Labour’s Andrew Lewin one of those benefiting from the party’s landslide, overturning a previous Tory majority of more than 10,000 votes. A combination of retiring MPs and 2024 losses meant that while there are now more than a dozen Labour MPs who are Jewish, there is now just one – Julian Lewis, MP for New Forest East – among the Conservatives sitting in the House of Commons.