RISHI SUNAK faces further by-election nightmares in the new year after yet another Tory MP has been forced to face the electorate following a sleaze scandal.
Wellingborough voters have approved a recall petition, triggering a fresh poll in the seat, after Peter Bone was suspended from the Commons for six weeks.
The suspension followed charges of bullying and sexual misconduct by a former aide to the MP, who denies the allegations.
The Tories will be defending an 18,500 majority, but Labour has secured bigger swings at other recent by-elections in Tory territory.
Recent polling in Wellingborough suggests that the Conservative vote has collapsed by nearly half since 2019.
Mr Bone has not ruled out standing as an independent, which would further complicate the Conservative cause in the constituency. He has promised a statement in the new year.
A disturbing number of Tory MPs have seen their political careers terminated by sleaze in the present parliament.
Charges have included mendacity, bullying, groping, corruption, indecent exposure and watching pornography while at work.
The latest to have their conduct referred to the standards committee is darling of the anti-woke right Miriam Cates, the Penistone and Stocksbridge MP, who faces allegations of causing “significant damage to the reputation of the house as a whole.”
It has not been revealed which of the seven deadly sins Ms Cates is supposed to have indulged in, though it is believed the charge sheet may feature allegations of carousing at a lockdown-busting booze-up with other top Tories in December 2020.
Some of those in attendance have apologised for a “momentary error of judgment,” while others have described the event as “a business meeting.” It may or may not have been a birthday party for two of the attendees — accounts differ.
In fresh chaos on the Tory right today, Andrew Bridgen MP has quit the Reclaim Party, led by troubled thespian Laurence Fox.
Mr Bridgen joined Reclaim several months ago after leaving the Conservatives following a widely condemned outburst comparing Covid vaccines to the Holocaust.
While Mr Fox gave him a political home, the two have since developed differences over Reclaim’s “direction,” which appears to be towards total obscurity, having lost the battle for the right-wing fringe to the Farageist Reform UK party.
Mr Bridgen will now represent North-West Leicestershire as an independent.
