Conservatives set to reveal new location for CCHQ in the North 'pretty soon'

Speaking in West Yorkshire on a tour of former 'red wall' seats, Amanda Milling said the party was "fully committed" to moving Conservative Campaign Headquarters, also known as CCHQ, out of London.

It was reported in February that after returning 109 new Tory MPs in the General election, many from constituencies never before held by the party, senior Tories were working on plans to boost their ground presence outside the capital.

Readers of the website ConservativeHome were asked for their suggestions on the location of the headquarters, either in the Midlands or North of England, which had good trains links and was "well placed in political terms".

When asked about the proposed location by The Yorkshire Post, Ms Milling said: "All I would say is that we are still fully committed to relocating out of London, we will maintain a presence in London, but we are looking to relocate to the North. I'm hoping to have more news on that pretty soon."

Ms Milling yesterday visited Yorkshire Sculpture Park near Wakefield and met local MP Imran Ahmad Khan before moving on to Lancashire.

She said visiting West Yorkshire was "going back in time" as she she spent a number of years working in Leeds for a market research firm called Optimisa Research between 2010 and 2014, first at their base in Calverley and then in the city centre.

She said: "Over the last few weeks since I was appointed co-chairman back in February, one of the things I wanted to do is get around the country to the seats that we won in December, obviously lockdown put a bit of a halt to that.

"But when we eased restrictions I started getting back out and about again."

Meanwhile, Downing Street today did not deny concerns that social distancing rules may have been breached when Boris Johnson addressed a busy meeting of Tory MPs.

The Prime Minister has faced questions over whether he gave a speech to at least 50 Conservatives in a Parliament room marked for a maximum of 29 people to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Ms Milling did not deny the suggestion but said she did not attend the meeting personally. She said an earlier meeting she chaired with the PM and the Chancellor Rishi Sunak and the 2019 intake of Tory MPs was split into two to abide by social distancing rules.