It is just a week since Owen Paterson had to step down but there no abating the media interest in what other Tory MPs are doing. As can be seen the Times is leading on the former Attorney General Geoffrey Cox and the Guardian is putting the focus on the former Tory leader, IDS. All this comes after the polls are showing the Tory lead collapse and Johnson with some terrible personal rating numbers. At some stage this will die…
December’s battles should surely change that Here’s a political trivia question that even the most ardent PBer would struggle to answer – when and where was the last successful Tory Westminster by-election defence? The answer is hard because there have been so few such contests. The answer is Sleaford and North Hykeham in December 2016 when TMay was PM. Since then the Tories gained Copeland from LAB in February 2017, and lost Brecon & Radnorshire to the LDs a week…
This just drives the “different rules for them” narrative Johnson’s visit to a hospital in Northumberland where he refused to wear a face mask is getting a fair amount of attention on social media and comes at a difficult time for the PM who has seen his ratings drop sharply. I don’t think he was helped this morning by Deputy PM Dominic Raab in the above BBC Breakfast interview. Surely someone reputed to be as good a communicator as Johnson…
Another morning and another set of newspaper front pages with the Mail finding a new line of attack on the government highlighting a “Tory Grandee” who spent weeks in the Caribbean while the Commons was sitting. The one thing that seems to be consistent is that the Telegraph, Johnson’s former employer, seems to be staying loyal to their man and yet again is almost alone in not attacking the PM and his government. I’m beginning to think that he might…
Raab, IDS, 1922 Chair Brady and many more Mike Smithson
Not good numbers with by-elections coming up The latest poll from Ipsos-MORI, the firm that has been political polling in the UK since the 1970s, is out and has bad news for Johnson and worrying news for the Tories. The voting figures are: LAB: 36%=: CON: 35% -4: GRN: 11%: +5 LD: 9%= Overall satisfaction with Boris Johnson has also fallen. A third (34%) are satisfied with the way he is doing his job as Prime Minister (down 5 points…
In the past few days several PBers have commented that they think that the Tories will win another majority at the next election. This is in contrast to the trend on the betting markets where the chances of such an outcome, as rated by punters, has edged down a bit. This is entirely in line with current polling with two firms now having the CON lead down to one. This represents a 5.4% CON to LAB swing since GE2019. We…
This morning many households in North Shropshire received their first leaflet, see above, of the by-election from the LDs which is pretty fast work given the vacancy was created only a few days ago. Although the party came third in the seat at GE2019 they were in second place at last May’s local elections and seem to be making this their priority. At this stage in the campaign, the party is seeking to establish itself as the main challenger. An…