The Tories this year:

– David Warburton loses whip over alleged sexual harassment.
– Imran Ahmad Khan convicted of child sexual assault.
– Neil Parish, tractors and porn.
– Tory MP arrested on suspicion of rape.
– Deputy chief whip resigns after allegedly groping two men.

— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) June 30, 2022

The overnight news about the former Deputy Chief Whip, Christopher Pincher, is the latest story related to a Tory MP that has got people like me to be rushing to Wikipedia to find out what happened in his seat at GE2019.

For the record, Pincher gained Tamworth from LAB at GE2010 and has increased his majority there at every election he has fought. At GE2019 he chalked up 66.3% of the vote and was 42.6% ahead of second place Labour.

We don’t know yet whether this will trigger a by-election but there must be a reasonable chance that it will.

It is said that the unique working conditions in the Palace of Westminster are to blame and having worked as a journalist there in the 1970s I can say it is far from a normal workplace.

One factor is that nowadays are given a lot more support so they can build an office of several people.

Another odd feature is that so far at least it is mostly confined to Tory MPs.

Mike Smithson