Newsnight took to arduous journey to Bury South for last night’s broadcast, where lefty remainer Ben Chu introduced a package of constituent vox pops by telling viewers that feelings about Christian Wakeford’s defection among locals were “mixed”. Of the following clips just one of the five interviewees said anything positive about the defection, with one labelling it a betrayal and another saying they were “disgusted”:

Guido’s rather surprised so many had heard about the defection in the first place, given a quick sweep of the MP’s social media and website reveals he hasn’t yet personally broadcast the news. His Facebook page still proclaims he’s the Tory MP for the area and the only noticeable change has been a quiet replacement of his old party with new in his Twitter bio.

Some may give him the benefit of the doubt and say he had a busy day yesterday, and presume all his staff resigned upon finding out about his treachery, meaning they couldn’t help with any social media content. However, his senior researcher did break social media silence via Linkedin yesterday, saying “I fully stand behind my boss” and spelling out that they’re staying on with him.

This being the same staffer who asked for the No. 10 email address 15 minutes before PMQs, presumably to give them a courtesy notice of what was about to happen…