Tory MP spotted ‘literally hiding behind chair to avoid 11 colleagues desperate to become Prime Minister’
July 12, 2022 in News by RBN Staff
Source: My London
The hectic Conservative leadership race is heating up – and some Tories want out
A London Labour MP has claimed she found a Conservative Member of Parliament hiding in a room to avoid being lobbied by Tory leadership contenders. Tulip Siddiq, Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn and Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury, made the claim as at least ten candidates lobby hard to secure Conservative MPs’ backing in the current leadership race.
On Monday (July 11) she tweeted: “I slipped into one of the small rooms in Parliament during votes to make a phone call and jumped when I noticed a Tory veteran in the corner hiding behind a chair. Like actually hiding. So I said what are you doing? He said very grumpily ‘Hiding!’ I said why? He said angrily I’ve had 11 phone calls! 11! And I’m not endorsing any of that lot! I’ve told them but they keep calling me! Not sure why he didn’t just turn his phone off [to be honest]…”
She said the MP was tall, with Ms Siddiq suggesting it was one of Peter Bone, Sir Bill Cash or Sir John Redwood. One person replied: “It’s like a school for naughty boys and girls.” Another added: “We don’t have a government right now, do we?” One user suggested it was like if TV satire The Thick of It was a documentary.
Another added simply: “We’re all screwed” while a Labour councillor said: “Honestly, if you can’t hack people calling you asking for endorsements/votes, you shouldn’t be in politics.”
Each potential candidate needs 20 nominations from Tory MP colleagues before the day is over to go through to the next round, as the Conservative party whittles down the candidate list from nearly a dozen to just two before it is put to the party membership for a vote. The winner – and the UK’s next Prime Minister – is expected to be declared on September 5. The first hustings of the Tory leadership campaign begins at 5pm today (July 12) in Parliament, hosted by the Tories’ social justice caucus. The first ballot is expected to take place between 1.30pm and 3.30pm on Wednesday (July 13), with a result announced on the same day.
To get to the next stage, candidates will need 30 votes or more from Tory MPs. A second ballot will then take place on Thursday, July 14, after which only two candidates will remain. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has already dropped out of the race as he failed to secure 20 nominations. Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt, Liz Truss and Tom Tugendhat already have enough nominations to get through to the next round.
Wow. The Brittish are getting browner and uglier by the day.