John Moss: Candidates. The ‘assessment centres’ have begun – but what’s changed?

John Moss is a campaign manager at College Green Group and helps people seeking election to navigate the approval and selection stages of the candidate process. He is also Sir Iain Duncan Smith’s constituency association chairman, a councillor, and former GLA and parliamentary candidate.

Last month, emails dropped into the inboxes of those who had applied to rejoin the Approved List of Prospective Parliamentary Candidates, passed the initial review of their applications and cleared the due diligence stage, inviting them to the first stage of the ‘Assessment Centre’. That dreadful term is hanging on, no doubt, from the HR background of the previous chair of the Candidates Committee – every one still calls it the PAB!

So far, so familiar.

This is the same process of approving future candidates as in the previous Parliament, but there have been changes, which have been developed under the leadership of Clare Hambro, who took over as Chair of the Candidate’s Committee in the spring. With admirable transparency, these were laid out to members of the Party’s National Convention at the Party Conference in Manchester.

First and foremost was a commitment that everyone applying would go through the same, full process with no ‘light touch’ reapproval for former MPs or those who were previously on the Approved List. This was applauded by almost everyone in the room, and whilst the questions to be put to applicants in their competency interview are likely to be tailored to their previous circumstance, this is a sensible variation, rather than any relaxation of the rigour of the process.

Since applications opened in late summer there have been over 500 applications. There is a much-reduced team at CCHQ and the system has been a little glitchy, but those who do clear this hurdle must then provide three referees and submit to financial and digital vetting. It would seem unlikely that anyone who felt their past might trip them up would apply, but a pre-emptive check perhaps ought to be considered.

Assuming those first two hurdles are cleared, the Assessment Centre beckons.

The first stage again consists of the interview with two assessors, though in-person this time, not online. Then there is the ‘Inbox’ exercise that challenges applicants to show how they would deal with scenarios MPs typically face, and to prioritise them. Unsurprisingly, you’re playing the role of an incumbent MP with a significantly reduced majority in a seat where control of the council has been lost by the Conservatives. Depressingly familiar!

In the last parliament there were eight scenarios presented for this exercise, to complete over 45 minutes. That remains, but the new set appears to be slightly less intricate and, surprisingly, a little less focused on how one might translate constituency casework into local campaigns. Expect challenging diary clashes, tough casework, internal relationship management, and how to deal with proposals by the left-wing council, as well as some personal integrity issues.

What looks like it has changed the most is the content of the interview. Whilst still following the ‘competency’ model where you need to find the stories from your life which illustrate the competencies the assessors are looking for, there is a stronger emphasis on campaigning experience, leadership, and problem solving from a Conservative perspective. Interviews last at least an hour, so a thorough grilling is to be expected.

Again, in the last parliament, about one third of those who took stage one didn’t make it through to the final stage, so nailing the interview is essential as these assessors will probably also recommend the level of pass you receive, should you progress and pass the second stage of the Assessment Centre.

That stage will continue to be in-person and the psychometric and situational judgement tests will remain, but the exercises to be done live in front of assessors are changing. Whilst not yet clear, the four-way collaboration test – the ‘group exercise’ – is likely to be more campaign focused and the public speaking/Q&A exercise may revert to one where you get the subject rather than use one of your own. It is likely that a mock media interview will be added to the suite of challengers too. So get reading those Weekend Briefs!

All assessors involved in your progress through the various stages will be involved in the final decision-making process. So every stage from the Application Form to the final in-person test will be a factor in deciding to pass you or fail you, and if it is a pass, what sort of pass you get.

We hear that the geographic restrictions and the rather pointless ‘key’ pass will be dropped, with successful applicants either getting a full pass or a development pass. Full passes allow you to apply for any seat, including target seats; those with development passes will be restricted to non-priority seats, possibly in a “Team Seats” cluster.

It is anticipated that the first constituency adverts will go out after the elections in May, by when a reasonable cohort of approved candidates will be in place so that constituency members have a good pool to choose from.

Credit is due to Clare and her team for getting this process underway, in good time to have all seats selected by late summer 2027, whilst also dealing with Mayoral and Welsh candidate selections. This ought to give all candidates a fair chance of embedding themselves in their constituencies and delivering the best possible result in the General Election – whenever that might be called.

It is intriguing that Reform are not yet advertising for potential future parliamentary candidates (other than for seats where there might be by-elections) and with more candidates to find than any other party apart from the Greens, it will be ironic if they end up doing the sort of head office stitch-up that Conservative constituencies faced in 2024, 2019 and 2017!