 In January 1983 he was adopted as Conservative candidate for the Bradford North constituency; after boundary changes it was estimated that Labour had a 16% lead over the Conservatives in the seat.The election in Bradford North was one of the more high profile as the local Constituency Labour Party had deselected the sitting MP Ben Ford; Ford then stood as an Independent Labour candidate to try to keep his seat.His replacement as Labour candidate, Pat Wall, was a founder of the Militant tendency, and when Labour Party leader Michael Foot visited to support him, full-page newspaper adverts placed by the Conservative Party reprinted part of a speech in which Wall had declared that a Marxist Labour government, on coming to office "will face bloodshed.