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:
Today in the Commons Richard Tice hit out at Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson over the government’s “deeply misguided” VAT hike on private schools. The Reform MP challenged the minister over the impending state school “capacity crisis”, a product of “thousands of children being forced out of independent schools.” Tice making himself a grade A headache already…
This comes after it was revealed some state schools are asking parents to prove they can no longer afford their private school fees to secure a place at a local state school. This is just the beginning…
The Reform MP said: “I have a list of 20 schools in Buckinghamshire alone that have no places whatsoever. In Bristol, the City Council is considering buying places from an independent school.” If this happened, it would mean a child attending private school at the taxpayers’ expense, despite having just been there at their parents’ expense. Labour logic…
Labour’s latest brainstorming session for how to raise taxes whilst blaming the Conservatives has produced a new scapegoat: the NHS. No prizes for originality…
A major report commissioned by Health Secretary Wes Streeting is set to find NHS progress has declined for the first time in 50 years. Waiting lists, which have increased across all areas of the service, will be highlighted as a Tory failure, adding to the growing arsenal of Labour excuses to raise taxes. Streeting will be hoping no one looks to Wales’ Labour run NHS where 20.1% of people wait more than a year for treatment, compared with 5.2% in England…
Many will see the report as the latest development in Labour’s doom-mongering approach to government, clearly a ruse to prepare the country for tax rises in the imminent October budget. The phrase ‘progress has declined’ feels very Labour…
You’d be forgiven for thinking First Minister Morgan’s Listening Tour of Wales – designed to ensure “everyone’s voice is heard” – would involve taking questions from the public. It doesn’t…
Wales’ new Labour leader has carefully planned her tour to have zero events where people can turn up and ask questions or put points to her, despite its claim to give “everyone a chance to contribute”. No doubt those lucky enough to grace Morgan’s presence will be handpicked Labour supporters…
It is no wonder Morgan, who recently took over as leader after Vaughan Gething’s disastrous 78-day premiership, doesn’t want to face the Welsh public. Cymru lags behind its regional UK counterparts in almost every measure. NHS waiting times are longer. Educational attainment is lower. Not to mention Wales’ continued fury with Labour’s 20mph speed limits, which has now put the kibosh on a cycling race as cars won’t be able keep up with the bikes. Don’t take questions you don’t want to give answers to…
Conference season is looming, and with the Tories faffing about with their four-month leadership competition, Guido hears Farage and his crew have been making hay for Reform ahead of its conference while the Tories flounder. Harvest is nearly upon us…
A Reform source says “we are much happier than we were this time last year” with tickets selling at a significantly faster rate. Tickets for Party Members cost £50 with attendance at an “Evening Gala Party with Nigel Farage and special guests” going for only £25. Dress to impress…
Platinum tickets are also available which, for the princely sum of £1,000, get you:
- A reserved parking spot.
- Access to all member events.
- Front row seats for speeches.
- Gala Party Ticket.
- Saturday Morning Champagne Breakfast with Reform Leadership.
- Photo with Nige.
For the first time, Reform’s conference is two days instead of one, and the BBC will have a dedicated studio to cover the event with concurrent on-location reporting from the likes of GB News and Times Radio. A sweet moment for Reform after the BBC called them ‘far-right’ earlier this year…
Friday 20th September will see Farage and co. make the usual political speeches in Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre, before evening partying. Saturday will see work on putting the party constitution together, with “safeguards” in place to dodge any UKIP-style bust-ups. Reform is gearing up to launch over 100 local branches in the coming weeks, rallying their 75,000-and-counting paying members. Members who will soon be able to choose their leader…
Labour may have outspent the Tories by £18 million in the election, that however hasn’t stopped their membership haemorrhaging another 37,000 members since 2022. The party faithful have been deserting Labour in droves since 2018 when membership stood at 532,000 under Corbyn, a decline of 170,000 members. With memberships averaging £60 a year per person, that’s a loss of £10 million to the Labour coffers over the last five years. Luckily the fat cat charm offensive paid off…
Labour’s ranks aren’t the only ones in decline. The SNP lost 10,000 members as of July 2024, whilst the Liberal Democrat army shrank 11% from 97,493 in 2022 to 86,599 in 2023. At that rate, the Lib Dem membership would cease to exist in eight years. Mark 2032 in your calendars…
While the Conservatives don’t publish membership figures, income from membership fees did fall from £1.97 million to £1.5 million. If votes are anything to go by the figures must be bleak…
