Sacked MP's farewell as new man is chosen

Mr Flight spoke of his plans before members of his party association voted Nick Herbert - 42 today and director of the think tank Reform - as the new candidate for the Arundel and South Downs constituency following Mr Flight's deselection.

After his selection, Mr Herbert, who lives in rural Suffolk, was introduced to the waiting media by association chairman Angela Litchfield.

Ms Litchfield said: "I would like to express my sincere thanks to Howard Flight for his diligence and hard work for this constituency and his enormous contribution to the success of this association.

"We will now move on. We have four weeks of jolly hard work."

Mr Herbert, a Cambridge graduate, spoke of his "utter delight" at being selected and his determination to ensure the constituency seat continues its good majority at the election.

He added: " I express my support for Michael Howard and his leadership."

Mr Flight, who attended the start of the meeting and addressed members of the association - together for the first time since the controversy broke - earlier told journalists he had ruled out running as an independent candidate.

He spoke after he had delivered an "emotional" farewell speech to activists in his former Arundel and South Downs constituency.

Mr Flight, who left the meeting for members to hear from the candidates vying for the post, read out some of the speech he released to The Argus earlier in the day.

Standing with his wife Christabel on the steps outside the Avisford Park Hilton hotel near Chichester, where the constituency party meeting was being held, Mr Flight said: "It would be ridiculous for me, a Conservative for 40 years, to be the one that stops them winning."

Mr Howard ruled the MP could not stand as a Conservative candidate in the constituency after comments he made suggesting the party had a programme of secret spending caps.

Mr Flight said he could "understand" why Mr Howard had taken the decision to sack him.

Asked whether he thought he had damaged the Conservatives' electoral prospects, Mr Flight said he hoped he had not.

He said: "I don't think it will because it points the spotlight on the issue of our times. We've paid 70 per cent more tax since 1997. People don't want to pay any more taxation."

Mr Flight said he would be spending the next month campaigning in the Brighton and Hove area and then he and his wife would be taking a "damned good holiday".

Not all association members at the meeting, which was also attended by Conservative Party chairman Liam Fox, were happy about the vote.

At least four left the meeting in protest that Mr Flight had not been reinstated.

Some members had been hoping after his dismissal by Conservative Central Office, that he would stand independently from the party.

But Mr Flight said: "I want more than anybody else to get the Conservatives into power and it would be ridiculous for me, after 40 years, to be someone that stopped us winning. How would I feel if I caused my friends to suffer as a result?"

Mr Flight said the whole affair had been "a load of rubbish".

He said: "I never said there was a secret agenda. All I said was the party, as any government, has to make efficiency savings."

He said: "I apologise for the fact that I am the guy that led to the spin that has caused the trouble.

"I understand entirely why the party did what it did. Perhaps I have been treated a little unfairly but I'm a realist. I have talked it through with friends and a large number of MPs. The constitutional issues will want to get sorted out after the election."

Mr Flight left before Mr Herbert was chosen but he said all three candidates were very good.

He knew them personally and he wished his successor well.

Terry Walsh, from West Chiltington, left the meeting shortly after Mr Flight. and said: "As far as I'm concerned, a Member of Parliament can only be deselected by the association.

"Liam Fox is not even a member of the association."

Association vice-president Harold Hall, from Warningcamp, said: "It is unquestionably immoral. It may even be unlawful.

"I came to hear Howard Flight. This has been my first opportunity. I thought he was brilliant. It is a disgusting way to treat an association of fair men and women."

Neil Winton, an association member from Findon, said he voted for Mr Herbert. He said: "Howard Flight made a very emotional speech.

"I didn't expect to come to a Tory Party meeting and have tears in my eyes. He was choking with emotion. It was very sad."

Other candidates included Anne Marie Morris and Laura Sandys.

Questions were raised about Mr Herbert, who some members said had expressed similar views to those that got Mr Flight into trouble.

According to Mr Hall, Mr Herbert had written magazine articles advocating the same kind of Conservative taxation agenda as Mr Flight.

He said: "I read the words, written some time ago but far more damaging than what Flight said."

Mr Hall said he found it "unbelievable" Mr Herbert had been selected for the shortlist.

However, Mr Flight said he did not want to get involved in issues that had been stirred up by the media.

He refused to rule out taking legal action against the Conservative Party, although he said it was "extremely unlikely".