Second Resignation
On 15 February 2006, Jenkins was selected by the Conservative Party to contest the Carmarthen West and Pembrokeshire South constituency, to take place in 2007. The seat is seen as a winnable seat for the Conservatives, as opposed to the Llanelli constituency where Jenkins was intending to stand for in 2003.
However, the following day, Jenkins resigned as a Conservative candidate for the second time. While attacks from opposition parties to Jenkins' selection were inevitable they were less than ferocious. Jenkins later commented that he was forced to resign by David Cameron who feared Jenkins' selection would undermine Cameron's attempt to re-brand the Conservative Party as inclusive to homosexuals.
Jenkins subsequently announced that following his resignation as a candidate he was also quitting the Conservative Party because of what he saw as the Conservative Party's unfair treatment towards him. Jenkins claimed that he had been encouraged to apply to become a pre-approved Conservative candidate by the Party's group leader in the Welsh Assembly, Nicholas Bourne, had been subsequently pre-approved by the Conservative Party as a candidate and then selected to fight the Carmarthen West and Pembrokeshire South constituency by the local party in that seat but that the potential controversy that his selection could have caused and the effect on David Cameron's image led David Cameron to demand his resignation as a candidate despite the Conservative Party in Wales giving Jenkins its full backing.
Read more about this topic: John Paul Jenkins
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