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:

Robert Buckland tells Guido he is backing Moz Hossain for London Mayor. The former Cabinet Minister revealed his endorsement this afternoon:

“Moz is the candidate who will defeat Sadiq Khan next May. His remarkable story will command Londoners’ attention and his 21 years experience as a criminal barrister and now KC make him best placed to litigate the case against Sadiq Khan. I’m honoured to be supporting him and I urge my fellow Conservatives in London to vote for him to be our candidate for Mayor.”

Moz also has the support of Priti Patel and Iain Duncan Smith. Three big beasts rowing behind the wildcard – will it be enough? Six days to go…

International human rights groups have raised questions over the source of lucrative funds received by Labour MP Rushanara Ali. Rushanara has taken home £10,000 in advance payment from Bindmans LLP for her role in an inquiry into the treatment of an opposition activist in Kazakhstan. Robert Buckland, Andrew Mitchell and former Director of Public Prosecutions Lord Macdonald are also involved in the inquiry, though yet to record payment. It’s a lucrative gig for Ali, no doubt secured by her record on human rights…

The trouble is, beyond the fact this cash came from a big money law firm, we know very little about the origin of Rushanara’s remuneration. A partner at the firm, Tayab Ali, was asked to give assurances that the money didn’t come from “a Politically Exposed Person” or criminal activity. All he could say was:

“I am not able to tell you who pays for the work we are doing and I want to expand on that. As we all experienced in this trip here, this is a very sensitive inquiry and there are potential serious risks to those involved in the inquiry and for that reason for the time being the decision was made to protect the individuals by not revealing who they were.”

So much for transparency.

In a social media post, Lyudmyla Kozlovska – head of the human rights NGO Open Democracy Foundation, pointed to links between Tayab Ali and Bergey Ryskaliyev (a Kazakh expat sentenced to 17 years in prison for corruption) and raised questions of the inquiry’s funding. Is Rushanara raking in kleptocrat cash?

Robert Buckland has been keeping busy since leaving the government late last year. In December, the ex-Welsh Secretary joined the Foundry Chambers as a barrister, boasting of his “huge experience of criminal, constitutional and public law both as practitioner and law maker“. Just yesterday, he shared even more good news: he’s picked up a third job, now as a Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School. A lot on his plate, given there’s an election looming in the next 18 months or so…

Buckland is forecast by UK Polling Report to get a walloping at the next election if the polls stay where they are currently, seeing the return of Heidi Alexander as a Labour MP. Buckland’s diary is presumably so packed it explains why he’s even cancelled his own reselection meeting as the Tory candidate for South Swindon. Either that or he’s thinking of spending a lot less time in his constituency after the election than he’s letting on. To be fair to Robert, he’s not the only Tory MP who’s rescheduled his selection meeting lately. Guido hears that at short-notice Rishi Sunak did the same over the weekend…

The Boundary Commission has published its finalised revision of proposals for equalising constituency sizes and it makes interesting reading for a number of MPs. The review is designed to equalise constituency sizes, which had left England underrepresented, giving all seats, excluding protected areas, an electorate of between 69,700 and 77,000. It’s left a number of MPs facing challenges…

Gavin Williamson’s South Staffordshire is set to merge with South Dudley, leaving him with a scrap for a place. Dominic Raab’s job holding Esher and Walton has been made the more challenging with the addition of less favourable areas. While Ben Wallace’s constituency is also being hived off. Robert Buckland’s Swindon South has also become less comfortable. In other news Sir Keir, Rishi and Boris come off relatively unscathed. Though Tories overall shouldn’t be too displeased, the number of seats in England has gone from 533 to 543, which will likely benefit them.

Where England gains Scotland and Wales have lost out. Scotland will have two less seats, whilst Wales faces cuts of 8. Naturally this has caused concern amongst the home nations. Dave Doogan, SNP MP for Angus, was clearly feeling the heat and told The National the proposals were “a disgrace”. Nothing to do with the fact he will soon be seatless…

A consultation will now open until December 5th, and final proposals will be submitted by July 2023. Co-conspirators can find out what proposals might mean for them here.

Hat-tip: State of the Nation for the map

Today MPs made said goodbye to another friend and colleague James Brokenshire who sadly passed away from lung cancer two weeks ago, aged just 53 years old. One particularly touching tribute came from Robert Buckland who described his friend as:

“…driven, quick, persuasive, funny, kind, and decent. Don’t make the mistake of confusing those qualities with mere niceness, Madam Deputy Speaker, he was much, much more than that. Farewell my friend. Thank you for everything.” 

RIP James…