Cameron facing right-wing anger

David Cameron is facing a backlash from right-wing activists angry over the make-up of his approved list of future Conservative MPs. They say prominent Tories with solid political records have been left off, while others with almost no experience have been included, in Mr Cameron's drive to change the party's image.

His critics are preparing a new website to promote the names of potential MPs who were left off Mr Cameron's official list, many of whom are advocates of traditional Tory values like tax cuts, immigration controls and opposition to the EU bureaucracy in Brussels.

The proposed website has a domain name, "Not the A List", and is expected to become active early next week.

The names on Mr Cameron's priority A-list are officially secret, but almost 40 had leaked out by yesterday and have been posted on the ConservativeHome website, run by a former Tory official, Tim Montgomerie.

The names include a former soap opera actor, Adam Rickitt, the novelist Louise Bagshawe, and Priti Patel, who worked for the anti-EU Referendum Party in the 1997 election. All winnable Tory seats are expected to choose from the A-list, which is designed to increase the number of female and ethnic minority MPs.

The exclusion of Dominic Schofield, a political adviser to Michael Howard, has provoked anger. He stood in last year's election in Battersea, where the swing from Labour to Tory was nearly seven per cent.