Despite an unexpected trouncing at the general election, Guido hears Laura Pidcock hasn’t given up on her electoral dreams. Word on the ground back up in Durham is Laura is preparing to contest the safe Labour council ward of Lanchester next year following the expected retirement of Councillor Ossie Johnson, which she can then use as a springboard to fighting North West Durham again in 2024. It does rely on Laura managing to actually win a safe Labour seat this time though…

In 2017 Laura bought a £250,000 house in Lanchester (the most desirable part of the North West Durham constituency, favoured by high-level local council bureaucrats and university lecturers, after complaining she couldn’t get a council house, and claiming she was unable to afford her own place on her meagre £80,000 MP salary. Her long march back to Westminster begins in Lanchester…