In an update to the below article, it has now been confirmed that Katy Bourne has been 'elected' by Conservative Party members across Sussex to represent their party in the 2026 Mayoral election. 31st July 2025 - 15:27hrs
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The following article is about the Conservative's own process in selecting their candidate for the mayoral election.
In any meaningful democratic process, the integrity of candidate selection is fundamental. Fairness, transparency, accountability, and equality of opportunity are not mere ideals, they are non-negotiable requirements! Yet, as Sussex moves closer to electing its first Mayor, these crucial principles appear compromised by the premature and presumptive endorsements given to Katy Bourne.
Recent weeks have seen Katy Bourne actively and openly endorsed as the presumptive Conservative candidate for Sussex Mayor. She has publicly positioned herself as the party’s choice before any formal selection procedure has concluded, or, indeed, even properly begun. Sussex residents must question the fairness and appropriateness of a situation in which one potential candidate enjoys open support and endorsement before officially being chosen through any credible, transparent process.
What is particularly troubling is the unequal treatment clearly evident in this premature endorsement. Other candidates seeking nomination must submit themselves to comprehensive scrutiny: rigorous vetting, interviews, and robust public debate. These processes are not mere bureaucratic steps, they are the essence of democratic selection, ensuring that only the best-qualified, thoroughly vetted candidates can represent the public.
Yet Katy Bourne, despite holding public office already as Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner, seems curiously exempt from these procedures. Why has she not undergone the same detailed interview process as other potential candidates? Why has she not faced rigorous questioning on her track record, and particularly her controversial and questionable management of Sussex Police?
For example, Sussex residents still await her detailed response to the deeply troubling recent HMIC report on vetting failures within Sussex Police. Rather than address these critical issues transparently, and accept responsibility, Katy Bourne has instead preferred a steady stream of carefully staged endorsements designed to sidestep genuine scrutiny. Sussex deserves better.
These endorsements, arriving prematurely and without due process, send a disturbing message: some candidates are above scrutiny. Such practices erode public confidence, degrade democratic norms, and ultimately weaken the accountability that residents rightly demand from their public officials. Democratic integrity demands that candidates earn their positions fairly, transparently, and without shortcuts. A robust democracy thrives on open debate, equal competition, and public accountability, not pre-arranged outcomes.
Sussex residents must also question the motives behind these early endorsements. Why the rush to crown Katy Bourne before proper candidate selection? What do her endorsers fear from transparent competition, rigorous questioning, and genuine public accountability? Perhaps they recognise that her record, when subjected to open scrutiny, reveals uncomfortable truths, a record of rising crime rates, inadequate responses to policing scandals, and questionable effectiveness in her current role.
Sussex’s first Mayor will shape our region’s future profoundly. It is critical that this role goes to someone who has earned it through genuine merit, rigorous assessment, and transparent democratic processes. The foundations of our democratic system depend upon integrity, openness, and equality, not on preferential treatment and presumptive nominations.
The people of Sussex deserve better than a candidate anointed behind closed doors, untested by proper democratic scrutiny. They deserve accountability, integrity, and transparency, values conspicuously absent from Katy Bourne’s current approach. Only through genuine competition, rigorous vetting, and fair processes can we ensure Sussex gains a Mayor genuinely worthy of the trust and responsibility placed in their hands.
Democracy demands nothing less.
Fortunately, ultimately the public will decide. If it is true, as many suspect, that Coronation Katy will gain the Conservative nomination formally, she will be beaten at the ballot box, not simply because voters distrust backroom deals and premature coronations, but because her record as Police and Crime Commissioner reveals underperformance, inadequate responses to serious concerns such as the HMIC’s critical vetting report, and a troubling lack of transparency and accountability. Sussex voters will decisively reject a candidate who has repeatedly shown she is unable or unwilling to address the very problems she was elected to solve.
Sussex needs Reform!