Guido first reported that Matthew Parker Street’s break clause was coming up back in September last year. There has been talk of CCHQ moving office this week as donation inflow jitters mount…
CCHQ’s “red wall” Leeds branch has been understaffed for years and would be first up for the chop in a cost-cutting drive. That is no guarantee that Matthew Parker St is safe…
Farage’s Reform has expressed an interest in occupying the property in the Tories’ stead. It is currently based in creaky Millbank Tower, though the idea from Reform may just be a trolling exercise…
Guido is told 4MPS was included in the estate agent’s portfolio when they were last searching for an office and it was viewed in summer last year. Interest among has picked up again among senior staff with new talk of CCHQ decamping. Many Tories, for their part, would be glad to see the back of their current two floors which are eye-wateringly expensive as well as suffering from faulty heating and water leaks. The symbolism might be too tempting for Reform to resist though…
Speaking on Times Radio, former Home Secretary David Blunkett spoke about overdiagnosis of mental problems:
“Let’s distinguish those who are really severely mentally ill, diagnosed with things that require prolonged medical and diagnostic treatment. My wife and I talk about this a lot, because she’s a retired GP, about the fact that you can be sad without being ill. You can be momentarily depressed because your boyfriend or girlfriend’s just thrown you and you’re not mentally ill. You can even have mild issues, which can be dealt with with the right kind of support, but it doesn’t make you mentally ill. So we’ve got a real task, I think, to get the psychology, if you like, of this over. But there are things where you definitely need medical intervention, and there are other things where you need good friends, you need good connectivity, and you need a job.”