Yeo de-selection vote result due

Another senior Conservative MP will find out today whether he has survived his battle against de-selection by local party activists.

Tim Yeo demanded a secret ballot of all 600 members of his South Suffolk constituency party after the association's executive committee voted not to re-adopt him as their candidate in next year's general election.

The count is taking place at the party's national headquarters in London, just three days after Anne McIntosh lost a similar de-selection fight in her Thirsk and Malton seat in North Yorkshire.

Mr Yeo, 68, a former environment minister, has received high-profile backing from David Cameron who said it would be a "great loss" for the party if he was not re-selected.

The South Suffolk executive voted against re-adoption last December just a month after Mr Yeo was cleared of breaking parliamentary rules on lobbying by the Commons Standards Committee.

The MP had temporarily stood aside as chairman of the influential Commons Energy and Climate Committee while the investigation was carried out after he was caught up in a newspaper "sting".

However reports have suggested the attempt to de-select him reflected frustration among some members that he was not devoting enough time to the constituency rather than concerns over the standards inquiry.