Party time brings very little cheer for our MPs
PROBABLY not the best week to be a Conservative MP. In fact, increasingly I feel sorry for Sara Britcliffe, the MP for Haslingden and Hyndburn, and Rossendale and Darwen’s Jake Berry.
Time and again it seems MPs like our pair are being played for fools by their leader, Boris Johnson. Just a week ago they were all being encouraged to line up behind their boss at Prime Minister’s Questions and boo and cheer as he deflected questions about the Downing Street party.
A week on, and any MP vocally supporting the PM’s stance is going to get short shrift round here. Just think back to a year ago – months under Tier 3 restrictions, not seeing friends, Christmases curtailed, relatives alone in hospital because they couldn’t be visited, and the last-minute decision to close schools for the January term.
Westminster may tie itself up in knots over what constitutes a party, and what is just having a drink while working, but it makes no odds in the real world. Our local MPs are increasingly the face of a political party which is behaving as though there is one rule for their leaders, and one rule for the rest of us.
A very tight spot for both MPs to be in.