One thing we are learning about Sunak is that he doesn’t like PMQs and his team is going to great lengths to restrict the number of his appearances. Hence this last week and next we find that the PM will not be facing the Commons and Starmer. With next Wednesday taken into account, the total of PMQs he will have missed since becoming PM will be 7 which is a far far higher proportion than his predecessors. Sure there are…
Mid-Beds – the by-election that will never be? It was on June 9th that Mid-Beds MP Nadine Dorries announced that she was stepping down as an MP “with immediate effect”. A short time later she learned that the House of Lords committee that advises the PM in these matters had turned down a proposal by Boris Johnson in his resignation honours that she should be a peer. Since then several weeks have gone by and still Nadine clings on to…
The story this week that has got me most worked up has been the one featured in the tweet above. What sort of person is the immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, to have issued this order? It is inhumane and just plain nasty. Maybe he hopes that this will endear him to the Tory membership and that might just be the case. But the message it sends out is just plain awful and will likely be used against the Tories. Maybe…
In Somerton and Froome the party is defending a general election margin of 29.6% while In Selby the Tory general election margin was 35.7%. Even in Johnson’s old seat of Uxbridge the general election majority was over 15%. Step forward to a fortnight tonight then all three could have been lost by the Tories. The betting markets have virtually written off Tory holds in Somerton and Uxbridge with Selby being the most competitive. What struck me is that if all…
I have said this before but I think this betting market offers very good value for those wanting to risk their cash on LAB not getting an overall majority. The way the market is defined Starmer’s party would need to win 326 seats which is exactly 122 more than they got at the last general election. This is a huge ask and I think people are understating the Tory vote because so many former Tory voters simply say don’t know…
It’s looking like Biden v Trump part 2
There’s now only a fortnight’s campaigning left in the three July 20th by-elections where the Tories are defending all the seats. Mid Beds might have a betting market but so far Nadine Dorries is not resigning although nearly a month ago she said she was going with immediate effect. Her delayed resignation has become something of an issue in the seat and this hasn’t helped the Tory cause. You don’t go public like Dorries did with her June 9th “resignation”…
We are getting a lot of reports at the moment about sitting Tory MPs announcing that they won’t be seeking re-election at the general election. According to the House of Commons library the total is currently 44 with the total edging up all the time. The current total for all parties is 69. Clearly, many MPs can read the way the polling has gone against the Tories compared with the party’s 12% GB lead at the last election. It doesn’t…