Colonel Bob Stewart becomes the latest Tory MP to announce he is standing down, his ultra marginal Beckenham seat will be all to play for at the general election. The colourful colonel will be much missed.
The MP for Beckenham was recently found guilty of a supposedly racially aggravated public order offence. During a heated exchange after being accused of being corrupt – “Bob Stewart, for how much did you sell yourself to the Bahraini regime?” he told the protestor: “Go away, I hate you. You make a lot of fuss. Go back to Bahrain…. Now shut up, you stupid man.” Many thought the magistrate Paul Goldspring was harsh in finding the exchange to be a racially aggravated public order offence.
Bob was always outspoken and an old school traditional Tory. His association has begun the search for a new candidate…
Shortly before losing to Labour’s Sarah Edwards and storming out (before she’d even finished her victory speech), Tamworth’s Tory candidate Andy Cooper appeared in a pal’s celebratory video. Somewhat prematurely…
Meanwhile, in Mid Beds, the Tory candidate also left the count before the Labour victor finished speaking, apparently on instruction from Tory high command. Not the usual form, even the most ungracious losers stay until the end of the speeches…
While their leader is 3000 miles away amid the pyramids of Egypt, at home the Conservatives are waking up to a double whammy of by-election results so bad they are impossible to spin. Labour’s gain in Mid Bedfordshire is the largest raw Conservative majority (24,664) to be overturned by Labour at a by-election since 1945. The seat has elected Conservative MPs continuously since 1931. Until now…
The Tories spent weeks telling any pundit who would listen that the LibDem vote would split Labour’s, meaning they could ‘come through the middle’. But Labour managed a swing of 20.5 points, nearly matching the 20.4 point swing at the other end of the U.K., in Rutherglen & Hamilton West. And this was with a locally well-known and hardworking candidate in Festus Akinbusoye. Guido hears he is feeling very sore this morning. Will he stay silent?
The result in Tamworth is less surprising – though it comes in a heavily leave voting seat with a 19,000+ Tory majority. Labour pulled off an even bigger swing there of 23.9 points, the second-largest swing by them at a by-election since 1945. The biggest was against Major in 1994…
In April 1996, one year ahead of the 1997 general election, a by-election took place in the very same area (then called South East Staffordshire). Blair’s Labour won the seat from the Tories on a massive swing: 22.1 percentage points, just less than the 23.9 point swing in Tamworth now. The ‘Starmer isn’t as good as Blair’ talking point doesn’t work here – he’s done better…
The Tories are grasping for excuses for these results, variously blaming the weather, Nadine Dorries, tactical voting and voters staying at home. But with these huge swings against them now more uniform, they are in denial. This is a national problem. With Sunak away, Labour have a clear run all day at the media to grandstand on the back of these results…
UPDATE: According to YouGov “Conservative voters think the government has the wrong leader by 46% to 36%, and the wrong policies by 53% to 29% (with 36% thinking both are wrong)
Compared to 2022, when Boris Johnson was still prime minister, Tory voters are 4 points less likely to say the government has the right leader, and 16 points less likely to say the government has the right policies.”
SNP MP Lisa Cameron announced today that she has defected to the Tories over “toxic and bullying” treatment from colleagues, the Daily Mail reports. Last month she failed to mention her party affiliation anywhere on her campaign literature. Long time coming?
She thanked Rishi Sunak for his support in recent weeks. She also claimed “being in the SNP has been bad for my health“. Hardly the headlines the SNP were hoping for going into conference…
UPDATE: Rishi has released a statement welcoming his newest MP to fold:
“I am delighted that Lisa Cameron has decided to join the Conservatives. She is a brave and committed constituency MP. Lisa is right that we should aim to do politics better, with more empathy and less division and a dedication to always doing what we think is right.
I look forward to working with her on the disability issues she has championed so passionately in parliament, and on the issues that really matter to her constituents in East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow.
“Her decision is a sign that we are the party for those who will make constructive, long term decisions for a brighter future for the whole of the UK.”
Read her full statement below:
Apart from Andy Burnham complaining of Mancs being treated as “second class citizens,” a few Tory cabinet ministers might be suffering from the HS-Blues this week as Sunak cancels the rest of the project in what Greg Hands noted would be called “a sign of our decline”. His head was presumably in his hands as the northern leg was axed…
HS2 is absolutely vital. Totally agree w @andy4wm. Post Brexit we must be AMBITIOUS for our country and hungry for our economy. What signal would it send if we cancelled our highest profile infrastructure project and weakened our commitment to share prosperity around the country? https://t.co/wqvlNAm3YQ
— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) May 20, 2019
Thérèse Coffey warned back in 2011 that to “dump HS2 saves cash now but N/S divide deepens”. Grant Shapps must have sympathy for Burnham, especially as he justified the decision to cancel the Leeds leg by arguing that “Manchester is a principal beneficiary of this entire programme”. In Jeremy Hunt’s words, “what signal would it send if we cancelled our highest profile infrastructure project and weakened our commitment to share prosperity around the country?”
As Guido first revealed, hereditary Iceland boss and former Tory donor Richard Walker has now quit the party ahead of his defection to Labour at their party conference next week – having repeatedly failed to get selected as a Tory candidate. Last night in The Times he accused the Conservatives of “flip-flopping” on big policies, and this morning he laments in The Observer how “badly out of touch” they’ve become since the 2019 election. These were not concerns he appeared to have just over four months ago: Guido can reveal he sent Rishi Sunak a personal letter begging to be put on the Conservative candidates’ list…
Guido has obtained the full letter, in which Walker spends three pages complaining about his failure to get selected and boasting about his charity efforts. He closes by asking Rishi to personally lift his deferment and install him as the Tory candidate Chester South & Eddisbury…
“As you will already be aware, it is my most fervent wish that I succeed in becoming an approved Conservative Party Candidate, and I have—over the last two years—given my all to earning that privilege… Unfortunately, I am subject to a deferment notice, imposed by the Committee on Candidates… I have striven to ensure that I anything I say in the public arena fully supports HM Government and Conservative Party policy… I am left with no other choice but to appeal to you directly to both lift this deferment and allow me to put myself forward to represent both the Conservative Party and my community in Chester South & Eddisbury.”
That letter was sent at the end of May. Once it was clear the plea had failed, Walker quit, and is now moaning in The Observer about how terrible the Tories have become. Out in the cold…
Read the full letter below:
