With the dust settling on Labour’s election landslide, many former Tory MPs have been enjoying their first summer of freedom since their schooldays. Here are some of the more eye-catching examples…
- Richard Graham, former MP for Gloucester, has been piling on the runs on the cricket pitch, with scores of 110 not out and 135 not out. He was soon sledged for “getting more runs than he did votes…”
- Alex Chalk, former Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, donned his vest and trainers for the Cheltenham half marathon, finishing in a respectable 1:47:40. A way to go to beat fastest-MP Mathew Paris’ blistering 1.17 effort in 1985…
- Robert Buckland, another former Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, has confessed he’s been having a ‘brat summer’ (brat meaning chaotic, braless and imperfect for the uneducated.) Not sure British pop-star Charli XCX had test match cricket, the opera, and exploring the Austrian Danube in mind when she coined the phrase…
- Greg Hands, former MP for Chelsea and Fulham, has embarked on an impressive gap year travelling through the US, Mexico and Canada, not to mention interrailing around northern India. Finding yourself is more fun than finding a job…
- Meanwhile David TC Davies, former Secretary of State for Wales, has taken a hefty pay cut to become a senior advisor to Laura Anne Jones, Member of the Senedd for South East Wales. The only thing worse than being opposition in Westminster is being opposition in Cardiff…
Post-Westminster life isn’t all rosy, though. One former Tory MP tells Guido “many of the traditionalists are ruing the fact their first summer off has coincided with the worst grouse and salmon season for decades.” Feather and fin proving as elusive as votes…
UPDATE: Matthew Offord gets in touch to showcase his sailing of a yacht from Guernsey to Greece over the summer:
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”
