Panic stations as the Standards Committee report into Patrick “Guido will be all over this” Mercer is expected very soon – it’s widely expected to be damning after last year’s lobbying sting. If the Committee recommend a long suspension from the House, the MacShane precedent is a resignation and a by-election. There is also scope for a headache vote in the Commons if Mercer does not jump. Just what No. 10 need right now.
2010 Result:
Conservative: 27590 (53.9%)
Labour: 11438 (22.3%)
Lib Dem: 10246 (20%)
UKIP: 1954 (3.8%)
MAJORITY: 16152 (31.5%)
Nottinghamshire is lovely this time of year. Mercer’s notionally safe Tory seat of Newark in the East Midlands has a chunky Labour vote and would be a big test for UKIP, who are doing well out of the latest outbreak of Tory sleaze stories. If they can’t win in circumstances like this, then where can they?