All quiet on the local front over sleaze vote

AS someone who many years ago lived through the sleaze under the John Major government, I am dismayed how little there has been in the local press on the current furore around governmental sleaze.

In the national press, even – surprisingly – in the Daily Mail and Daily Express, Boris Johnson and his senior ministers have been pilloried for first vigorously supporting Owen Paterson and then trying to neutralise the Committee on Standards in Public Life, even three-line whipping Tory MPs to vote for the change.

By contrast, the national press has been less than forthcoming in reporting how individual Tory MPs voted last Thursday – other than those 19 who had already had allegations against them upheld.

Surely, however, voters in constituencies have a right to know how their individual MPs voted? And if the national press do not do their job, surely the local press should do so?

The Mercury’s distribution area includes the constituencies of four Conservative MPs – Alberto Costa (South Leicestershire); Neil O’Brien (Harborough); Alicia Kearns (Rutland and Melton) and Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire).

So far, all four have remained silent (uncharacteristically so in the case of the last mentioned).

Perhaps all four might now let Mercury readers know clearly and transparently: 1) how they voted in Thursday’s vote; 2) their reasons for doing so; 3) whether they agree with Kwasi Kwarteng’s call for the resignation of the independent Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Kathryn Stone.

If they are unwilling to do so, perhaps we should surmise that “silence means consent”?

Michael Tully, Glen Parva Mailbox ed’s note: The MPs mentioned voted as follows: Mr Costa no vote recorded; Mr O’Brien - for; Mrs Kearns - for; Mr Bridgen - no vote recorded. For the record, the Mercury also covers the constituencies of Bosworth (Dr Luke Evans, Cons - for); Charnwood (Edward Argar, Cons - for); and, Loughborough (Jane Hunt, Cons - for).

The three city MPs voted as follows: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour, Leicester South - against); Liz Kendall (Labour, Leicester West - against); Claudia Webbe (Independent, Leicester East - no vote recorded).

There is one caveat - there can be a discrepancy between the number of MPs recorded by tellers and the number of MPs’ names noted by clerks, meaning a small number of MPs may have had their vote counted but not recorded next to their name.