Local members said Dewhirst’s great virtue was that he was a local, standing in his own constituency. They were “unwilling to take a punt” on an outsider.
Philip Davies, a famously long-standing and committed Brexiteer, is among their number.
For anyone with a mobile phone, it’s not rocket science to see why the Conservative Party is a decade behind in engaging people of my age.
“…Make sure this time you get it right/Vote for Greg Kni-igh-ight.”
May, Johnson, Hannan, Davidson, Fabricant and others give their thoughts. Plus, has anyone checked on Sir Simon Burns?
Rewards for good service – and an encouragement to MPs to accept Whip jobs.
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. On Friday, 50 MPs, including 34 Conservatives, wrote a letter to the Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, expressing their "serious concerns" with the Department of Health’s proposal to introduce plain packaging for tobacco products. The letter stated that: "There is no reliable evidence that plain packaging will have any public health […]
By Joseph Willits Follow Joseph on Twitter Proposals to give Parliament the power to take action on ministers who leak announcements to the media, before informing the Commons, have failed. The motion tabled by Phillip Hollobone MP (Kettering), aimed to be as "non-partisan as possible", was defeated by 228 votes to 119. Hollobone accused all three major parties of […]
By Jonathan Isaby The first of yesterday's opposition day debates in the Commons saw a Labour motion demanding a reversal in January's VAT rise with respect to road fuel and asking where the fuel duty stabiliser was – all in the name of the "hard pressed motorist". The hypocrisy of Labour's position, given its record […]
By Jonathan Isaby Thursday lunchtime sees the weekly session of Business Questions and as ever, today saw Sir George Young being asked about a wide variety of topics. East Yorkshire MP and Procedure Committee chairman Greg Knight was keen to know what progress there was to report on the electronic petitioning of Parliament: "Is he […]
By Jonathan Isaby At Business Questions yesterday, East Yorkshire MP Greg Knight put the following point: "Why do we still have to go through the ridiculous ritual of putting our clocks back every autumn, thereby plunging the nation into darkness by mid-afternoon? Will the Leader of the House give an undertaking that the Government will […]
Thirteen Conservative MPs – including nine of the new intake – were successful in the Private Member's Bill ballot earlier in the month. Today sees them formally presenting their Bills for the first time (there won't be any debate at this stage), which are summarised as follows on the parliamentary website: PUBLIC SERVICES (SOCIAL ENTERPRISE […]
I hope that fellow Conservative MPs will support my attempt to rebalance the scales in favour of drivers and responsible companies.