MP Helen Whately has been reselected as the Conservative candidate for the Faversham and Mid Kent constituency she has represented since 2010.

Party members decided she should be adopted as the parliamentary prospective candidate for the next general election this evening.

The seat is among the safest in the county and has a majority of 21,976.

Mrs Whately is minister for social care and has previously been a junior treasury minister.

The selection meeting comes against a backdrop of growing criticism of the party’s re-selection rules.

Damian Green, the MP for Ashford since 1997, was rejected at a selection meeting for the new Weald of Kent seat at the weekend - triggering an argument about the new selection rules which place the decision on executive members without going out to party members.

Boundary changes to the Faversham and Mid Kent seat due to come into effect at the next election would create an electorate of 69,844 and would eliminate a situation whereby the constituency would be covered by three local councils.

Objections centred on three wards in the existing Ashford constituency - Charing, Downs North, and Downs West - and plans to move them.