Highlights
- Raja reportedly lost a secret ballot of the Leicester Conservative Federation in late September
- Officials voided the meeting over an error with invitations
- A fresh selection vote will be held; no date set yet
- She was the only Conservative to gain a seat at the 2024 election
SHIVANI RAJA, the only Conservative to take a new seat at the 2024 general election, faces a second vote on whether she can defend it after her local party voided a ballot she reportedly lost.
The Leicester Conservative Federation (LCF) met at the end of September to decide whether to readopt the Leicester East MP as its candidate for the next general election, the BBC reported on Tuesday (13).
According to the report, Raja narrowly lost the secret ballot and was not readopted.
Party officials have since declared the meeting null and void, saying it was not properly constituted.
Acting LCF chair Phil King told the BBC there had been an administrative error relating to invitations to the meeting. He declined to comment on the result.
"Effectively the meeting did not happen," King said. "I will say that Shivani Raja has been a great MP for Leicester East and has worked incredibly hard for her constituents."
He said another selection meeting would take place in due course. No date has been announced. Raja said she did not wish to comment on the meeting.
The Tories' only 2024 gain
Raja's 2024 win was one of the few bright spots for the Tories on a night when the party fell to 121 seats.
She took Leicester East with 14,526 votes, 31.1 per cent of the total, according to official results. Labour's Rajesh Agrawal, a former deputy mayor of London, came second with 10,100, giving her a majority of 4,426.
It was the first time the Tories had won the seat since 1983. Labour had held it in 12 of the 14 elections since it was created in 1974, and Keith Vaz represented it from 1987 to 2019.
The Labour vote was split in 2024. Vaz stood for One Leicester and took 3,681 votes, while former MP Claudia Webbe, who had been expelled by Labour, ran as an independent.
A selection fight now could leave the party's candidate weakened in a seat it has historically struggled to hold.
From Leicester to Westminster
Born in Leicester in July 1994, Raja is a first-generation British Indian whose father moved to the city from Kenya and mother from India in the 1970s. She studied pharmaceutical and cosmetic science at De Montfort University and worked in the cosmetics industry before entering politics.
She drew attention after the election by taking her parliamentary oath on the Bhagavad Gita.
In Parliament, she sat on the Women and Equalities Committee from November 2024 to June 2025. Locally, she has campaigned over the scaling back of Leicester's Diwali celebrations, launching a petition last year with Harborough MP Neil O'Brien after the city council cut fireworks and the stage show from the Golden Mile event.
Earlier this month she was in India on parliamentary business, where she congratulated prime minister Narendra Modi on 25 years as head of government.
The LCF must now hold a fresh selection meeting. If Raja is readopted, she will defend Leicester East for the Tories. If she loses again, the party will need to choose a new candidate for one of its most unusual seats.
It is not yet clear who opposed her readoption, why, or how narrow the margin was.
