Newark is an anagram of a 42-year-old MP who still has the speaking style of an undergraduate Prime-Minister-in-waiting. Robert Jenrick's Conservative association has wished him good riddance, and he was late to his own defection because he thought that he was a rockstar as adolescent boys often do. Natalie Elphicke joined Labour, so anything is possible these days, but will next week's Labour defector to Reform UK be happy to be in the same party as Jenrick?
Is Councillor David Hawley of St Helens already happy to be in the same party as Jenrick? 48 hours ago, Councillor Hawley was in the Green Party. Is Jenrick happy to be in the same party as him? And as Councillor Jason Fazackarley, who had sat on Portsmouth City Council both as a Green and for Labour before he moved in November from the Liberal Democrats, who had made him Lord Mayor, to Reform? And Councillor Jeff Sumner of Burnley, also now sitting for Reform having been elected as a Lib Dem? And as at least six sitting Reform councillors who had been elected for Labour, including Councillor Mason Humberstone of Stevenage, who contested internal Labour Party elections on the slate of Morgan McSweeney's Labour Together? Are they all happy to be in the same party as Jenrick?
A broad church?
ReplyDeleteEven the broadest church needs walls.
DeleteJenrick overspent to keep Roger Helmer out of Newark, has everybody in that world forgotten?
ReplyDeleteI know for certain that they have not.
Delete“ A broad church?”
ReplyDeleteIt’s not a broad church-all the MPs joining Reform from Lee Anderson and Danny Kruger to Jenrick hail from the Right of the Conservatives (although Jenrick only moved markedly to the Right in the last five years) and are anti immigration, anti net zero and socially conservative.
Rubbish.
Delete“Rubbish.”
ReplyDeleteName one Reform defector who isn’t from the pro Brexit, anti-immigration Hard Right of the Conservatives. Several of them including Lee Anderson support the death penalty, Kruger and Dorries are anti abortion and gay marriage, Jenrick resigned from Sunak’s Cabinet in protest at his immigration policy being too soft and stood for the Tory leadership on a platform of withdrawal from the ECHR.
Former Reformer Rupert Lowe is of the same views.
It couldn’t be a narrower Church.
And Lowe is not in it anymore.
DeleteJake Berry?
Jake Berry’s voting record is consistently anti net zero, anti asylum and anti immigration, and anti euthanasia.
ReplyDeleteLowe held the same views when he was elected a Reform MP, and they’re the same as it’s six current MPs.
Again I point out that Lowe is no longer in it. Its Deputy Leader and its Chief Whip both voted for euthanasia, as did the Blessed Sarah Pochin.
DeleteI said Lowe was no longer in it when I first mentioned him, hence I called him a “former Reformer”, what is your point? As I said, he held the same views when he was elected a Reform MP that he and every other Reform MP holds now. He didn’t leave over policy differences.
ReplyDeleteReform’s leader and most of its MPs are against euthanasia but it’s a free vote and a matter of conscience so no party has a policy on it: but on the core issues, immigration, national independence, net zero, human rights and equality laws, and tax, all Reform MPs and most members hold the same views.
We’re not a broad church in any sense.
Lowe and Anderson voted for Second Reading, and they voted against Third Reading only for want of "safeguards". They are in favour of the principle. Having entered Parliament after Second Reading, Sarah Pochin voted for Third Reading.
DeleteOf the six Reform UK MPs, one third (Pochin and Tice) are in favour of this Bill in its final form, half (Pochin, Tice and Anderson) are in favour of the principle, and two of the other three were not elected as Reform.
You haven’t read what I wrote. Euthanasia isn’t a party political issue as MPs have a free vote on it since it’s a matter of conscience and all parties have a range of views on it-but Reform’s leader and most of Reform’s six current MPs are against the current euthanasia bill as a matter of fact-as are 80% of Tory MPs who also voted against it. It only passed because Labour has such a big majority and most of its MPs support it, (and even more support it in principle).
ReplyDeleteBut on matters of party policy, Reform certainly isn’t a broad church. Its MPs are fiercely anti immigration, net zero, the EU, the Equality Act and the European Court of Human Rights and generally support low taxes and welfare curbs.
"Most"? Even with Jenrick, it is only two thirds against this Bill as it stands. It is still 50-50 on the principle.
Delete