It's a funny old world when an ex-city councillor expelled for failing to attend a single meeting for six months is selected as Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Winchester - albeit 24 years later.

As a former Hampshire Chronicle reporter, I wrote the front-page news story when Flick Drummond sparked controversy by failing to resign from Winchester City Council after moving to the USA. 

Mrs Drummond left in summer 1999 when her stockbroker husband got a job on Wall Street. Despite moving 3,000 miles away she hoped to complete her term and avoid triggering a by-election in her city centre ward of St Bartholomew. 

Mrs Drummond, who still had nine months to serve, didn't claim any allowances when abroad and kept in touch with residents by letter, phone and email, she said. But a fellow ward councillor, the late Sue Nelmes, a Lib Dem, complained her casework increased dramatically and constituents were "left in limbo".

As reported by the Chronicle in February 2000, a city council spokesman said: "The chief executive confirmed with Mrs Drummond that she had not attended any relevant committee meeting for the period of six months and she had not obtained prior consent of the council for her absence. Her membership of the council has therefore lapsed under Section 85 of the Local Government Act of 1972 and she is no longer a member."

Mrs Drummond's website and election leaflet list her public appointments, including MP for Meon Valley since 2019, MP for Portsmouth South (2015-17) and her stint on the city council 1996-2000 but draw a veil over her expulsion. Er, not exactly transparent. 

Mrs Drummond clearly hopes Winchester voters have shorter political memories than me! 

Rachel Masker,
Sutton Scotney

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