Should MP Chris Skidmore foot the invoice for by-election he triggered?
Tory MP Chris Skidmore was already as a consequence of step down on the subsequent General Election, throughout which his Kingswood constituency in Gloucestershire is ready to be abolished.
So Conservative colleagues had been appalled two weeks in the past when the 42-year-old mentioned he was resigning the whip and forcing a by-election simply months earlier than he was as a consequence of go anyway.
Skidmore claims he was moved to behave in opposition to the Government’s issuing of recent oil and gasoline licences within the North Sea.
But even the eco-zealots inside his personal celebration are mentioned to be livid on the disruption. The Conservatives now face dropping a humiliating and pointless by-election in a constituency that will not even exist subsequent yr.
Tory MP Chris Skidmore was already as a consequence of step down on the subsequent General Election, throughout which his Kingswood constituency in Gloucestershire is ready to be abolished
Skidmore claims he was moved to behave in opposition to the Government’s issuing of recent oil and gasoline licences within the North Sea
Perhaps the true purpose Skidmore is stepping down is simply how busy he’s.
For up to now 9 months alone, he is taken on a £40,000 director’s position with an training firm, an £80,000 publish with the Emissions Capture Company and one other £80,000 publish writing coverage studies for the Global Insight Exchange think-tank.
Considering every by-election prices the taxpayer an astonishing £250,000, maybe moneybags Skidmore would possibly assist foot the invoice?
Last week noticed a disastrous look from Post Office investigator Stephen Bradshaw — who was concerned in prosecuting harmless sub-postmasters — on the ongoing public inquiry.
I could not assist however discover he was sporting a black swimsuit and black shirt — the identical clobber favoured by Keir Starmer for non-Westminster photocalls, akin to celebrating victory within the Selby and Ainsty by-election final yr. The irony is, I’m unsure which of the 2 males could be extra insulted by the comparability.
The creaking Parliamentary property has suffered 52 energy cuts since 2019, new figures uncovered by the Liberal Democrats reveal. Sir Ed Davey’s mob are actually consultants in relation to dropping energy.
The Labour MP Jess Phillips, 42, tweets from her Birmingham Yardley constituency: ‘Man on the doorstep in Yardley right now: ‘You look a lot youthful on the telly’.’ Talk about damned with faint reward.
Two Tory MPs overheard within the Commons: ‘Given the success of Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, if we organised a movie for the Stop the Boats marketing campaign, wouldn’t it have the same impact?’
Last yr, Labour chief Sir Keir Starmer was paid £18,500 by HarperCollins for a forthcoming autobiography, which he had been engaged on since March 2020. The writer revealed: ‘Starmer will return to his youth to hint the origins of his politics and the influences which have formed him as a pacesetter. It will make a fierce argument for the important position of respect and integrity in political life as he units out his imaginative and prescient for Britain’s future.’
But simply final week Starmer disclosed that he has repaid the cash because the e-book is not going forward. Perhaps he hasn’t had the time to jot down it — or, just like the Labour Party, has he merely run out of concepts?
Bite again in opposition to leftie Abbott
Veteran Lefty Diane Abbott was given quick shrift by a Commons committee when she defended pro-Palestinian marches within the capital.
Labour MP Diane Abbott (pictured)
‘On each of the massive London demonstrations I’ve been on, I’ve not seen a single, solitary soul glorifying Hamas,’ she insisted.
Gideon Falter of the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism was fast to reply: ‘We word very properly that you just did not see any anti-Semitism in any respect within the Labour Party underneath Jeremy Corbyn . . . We are very properly acquainted within the Jewish neighborhood along with your explicit contribution to the combat in opposition to anti-Semitism on this nation.’ Ouch.
