I completely agree with the comments above. Owen Meredith is a TERRIBLE choice for Newcastle-under-Lyme. CCHQ seem to have parachuted him into this Association by giving them only a choice of 2 candidates.

One has to question the wisdom of CCHQ in picking Mr Meredith. He left Newcastle Conservatives in a very bad way when he moved to London in 2008 and is the archetypal nasty "Toryboy" as Shaun Bennett says in his comment above.

Despite now claiming on twitter to have local roots in Newcastle, he essentially came to study at Keele (like thousands of other students) but was financially in a position to buy his own property at only 18 years of age (unlike thousands of other students and working people in Newcastle), subletting rooms to other Keele students, before selling the property at a gain and moving to London immediately on graduation. Hardly committment to the area buying a property for his student days which was then promptly sold. On ConservativeHome previously he did say he was born and brought up in Caerphilly in Wales and it has been his family home for more than 35 years when he stood for the Welsh Assembly in 2011.

Mr Meredith was also heavily involved in the Remain campaign in his home city of London during the EU referendum last year.

It will be interesting to see how he now tries to distance himself from his past actions and seeks to play the local card as he takes to the doorstep up in Newcastle in the upcoming campaign.