A co-conspirator gets in touch to say he saw the Tory Chief Whip, Simon Hart, laughing and joking in a friendly way with Rob Roberts, the currently de-whipped Tory and now Independent MP for Delyn. This adds fire to the rumour that post-Lee Anderson’s defection the Tories are contemplating bringing suspended MPs back into the fold sooner rather than later lest they fall into the tender embrace of Reform leader Richard Tice. This could see the likes of Matt Hancock, Bob Stewart and Rob Roberts brought back into the party.

Currently under a cloud for various reasons are Crispin Blunt, Julian Knight, Scott Benton and Andrew Bridgen. These would be more difficult to justify retrieving from political Siberia. In Bridgen’s case it is unlikely he would want to return to the Tories. Don’t think it is possible? Labour returned the whip to Andy MacDonald last week.

Students who didn’t quite get the GCSE grades they’d hoped for this week might be looking for a few words of encouragement right now – perhaps a reassuring figure to remind them there’s more to life than exam papers. Step forward independent MP for Delyn, Rob Roberts.

With a record fall in top results across the country, Roberts decided yesterday was the perfect time to tell everyone on Facebook that even “clever guys” like him can bomb in their exams. In fact, he’s so clever he joined Mensa aged 7:

“I’m a clever guy by any reasonable standard. I was in Mensa aged 7 and have an IQ in excess of 150. But I suck at exams. Always have done. I don’t believe that “what you remember on a specific day” is an accurate or even any way relevant picture of someone’s abilities.

I could quite easily have got all A* and A grades in my GCSEs. I got zero A* and 5 A’s, two B’s and four C’s. In my A-Levels I got BCDE instead of the AAAA my teachers knew I could get.

I went to Bangor University and dropped out just before the end of Year 2 exams because I didn’t want to sit them…”

The Kangaroo Court wanted to whack Boris with an astonishing ninety-day Commons suspension in today’s report. For context, that is the second-longest Commons suspension in the last 74 years. The only MP who got it worse was Keith Vaz, who was suspended for six months for offering to buy drugs for prostitutes. Boris’s crimes are eating cake in his office and upsetting the Kangaroo Court by calling it a “Kangaroo Court”…

His suspension would have been three times longer than Margaret Ferrier’s, who spoke in the Commons while showing Covid symptoms, and then took a train all the way back to Glasgow knowing she’d tested positive. She got thirty days.  Claudia Webbe, who was actually convicted of harassment, was never suspended from Parliament in the first place. 

Since Boris has ruined the Committee’s fun by leaving early, their substitute punishment is to suggest a ban on his ex-MP’s parliamentary pass – a sanction usually reserved for the likes of John Bercow, who bullied his way out of a peerage. The Committee’s over reaction only further demonstrates how unsuitable the membership were in the first place…

Independent MP Rob Roberts has declared other Welsh politicians are “second rate” and the Senedd has “failed in every conceivable way to deliver for the Welsh people“. Posting on Facebook yesterday, Roberts slammed Welsh opposition groups for doing “absolutely nothing” to stop Labour. The same Rob Roberts who was previously suspended from the Commons for sexual misconduct…

But it’s also correct that the opposition groups in the Senedd have done absolutely nothing about it. The whole place is full of second-rate politicians doing a second-rate job, sitting for two days a week and stealing a living from the public purse.

A fair chunk of them are elected having never actually won a vote, and they want to increase the gravy train even more. The whole institution is an absolute joke and the worst thing that’s ever happened to Wales, established on a 50.3% “yes” vote from a 50.2% turnout.

The Delyn Tory association, formally of disgraced MP Rob Roberts, has been placed into special measures after going into significant debt. At last year’s AGM the problem with the North West East Association’s finances was flagged, however there was no subsequent indication that the party’s officers were urgently tackling the matter. Guido has a feeling the Tories might be on course to lose Delyn to Labour…

The problems with the local association were taken to the national Conservative Party Board, who met a fortnight ago to save the branch. As part of the emergency medicine, the board has sacked all the officers of the Delyn Conservative Association, as well as placed the Delyn Conservative Association into ‘Supported Association’ status.

An email sent to local members makes a point of clarifying none of this was orchestrated by CCHQ, which does not have the power to remove association officers, nor put local branches into special measures. Having a suspended MP for so many years probably doesn’t help with donations or membership retention…

Guido speculated out loud this morning whether the Tory MP arrested for rape would be able to vote in the leadership election – given he hasn’t had the whip withdrawn, just told to stay away from the estate. Proxy votes are available…

Guido’s now had it confirmed by the whips’ office that he will be able to vote, and only members without the whip will be precluded from participation. In other words, just Rob Roberts and David Warburton. 

It wasn’t long ago that Theresa May was stupid enough to give Charlie Elphicke the whip back so he could support her in the 2018 leadership election. The whips’ office has assured Guido that Roberts and Warburton will not be handed the same luxury this time around…