With Grant Shapps pulling out of pre-scheduled events in the wake of the latest allegations against him, Michael Green — the man who has adopted Shapps’ pseudonym to challenge him in the election — has been banned from appearing alongside the Tory chairman at a hustings in Welwyn Hatfield.
With BBC Three star satirist Heydon Prowse having changed his name by deed poll, Guardian sketch writer John Crace had some fun with his absence from a student election debate this week:
“Switching identities isn’t the only thing Prowse shares with Shapps. The ability not to turn up is also contagious. The only two seats that remain empty for the hustings are both Shapps’s and Green’s. Maybe they really are the same person after all.
But Green’s campaign, which is being supported by Political Scrapbook, had requested to participate in a hustings later that evening — one which Shapps couldn’t ignore as it was organised by Christian ecumenical group Churches Together.
Contacted in the run-up to the event, an enthusiastic church staffer apologised that Green had not been invited in the first place, and promised to provide his team with details of the format.
Several hours later, however, the campaign received a call withdrawing the invitation on the grounds that “resources are limited” and that the presence of an additional candidate would, errr, cause the event to overrun.
The organisers of the only hustings of the only hustings in Witney attended by David Cameron, from which the leader of the National Health Action Party was banned? Churches Together!
