the green party candidate robert saunders was 29 years old and had lost his job as a buyer in an engineering firm at the start of the campaign. jim bazeley, a former mayor of lichfield and conservative leader on lichfield district council who had fought in 1987 as an independent conservative, declared that he would stand again as an 'anti-thatcher conservative'. on 6 march the newly formed nhs supporters party announced that its candidate would be dr christopher abell, a 34-year-old general practitioner from east dereham in norfolk; the party had hoped to find a local candidate and blamed the political connections of the chairman of the staffordshire family practitioner committee, who was also chairman of mid staffordshire conservative association.