I see Eleanor Laing’s expenses problems have hit the headlines again. Our Conservative MP came under fire earlier this year when the Daily Telegraph highlighted the £180,000 capital gains tax bill she managed to avoid by telling Parliament that her second home was in London and the tax authorities that her second home was in Theydon Bois.

I knew there was unhappiness among some local Conservative members and councillors but had not realised until today’s reports that Mrs Laing faces an organised attempt to deselect her. Conservative website ConservativeHome suggests that the Leader of the District Council, Di Collins, is behind the plot. If so, it will not be the first time she has tried to get rid of someone. Cllr Collins has form in this area. She fell out with Eleanor Laing’s predecessor, Steven Norris, to such an extent that along with colleagues she tried to deselect him as Epping Forest’s MP. They followed this up by trying to sabotage Mr Norris’s attempt to stand as the Conservative candidate to be Mayor of London with this letter to the Conservative Party Chairman.

One of the worst aspects of the affair is that the decision about Mrs Laing’s future rests not with her 75,000 constituents, but with a few hundred members of the Epping Forest Conservative Association (or the even smaller number who actually turn up to the deselection meeting). It’s another good reason to support Nick Clegg’s Take Back Power campaign, which would give voters the right to recall MPs who had lost the trust of their constituents. Sign up here and read more here.