Boris bopping the night away in Charlbury on New Year's Eve (Debate)
| Michael Flanagan |
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Sat 28 Jan 2023, 09:51 "It'll be a second home to offset some 40% tax." Not so sure. Whatever schemes accountants might dream up to move bits of Johnson B's income to Johnson C, they won't affect two simple principles established after the 2009 MP expenses scandals
So there's probably a different explanation that many Charlburians may find more alarming. On current polling trends, Johnson's Uxbridge seat would go Labour, and though most PMs increase their seat's majority, Johnson's been a useless MP for his area. The Tory party's awash with rumours he's looking for a new, safer, seat - either to contest in 2024 (dumping Uxbridge) or to be parachuted into as potential Leader after the party gets devastated at the next election. There's no legal requirement for an MP to live in their constituency, and electorates rarely seem to worry much about MPs living just over a constituency border. The house Johnson's allegedly buying is within, or within yards of, three seats Tories probably believe would be safe with a less anti-Tory national electorate (Witney, Banbury and the new Woodstock & Bicester seat), and within a few miles of seats even the most pessimistic (for Tories) polls imply they'll keep in 2024 (Cotswolds, South Northamptonshire, Stratford and Buckingham). So the likelihood is that locally influential Tories are scheming to find him a safe seat somewhere round here, and maybe even that a local Tory MP elected at the next Westminster election will resign soon after, making way for Johnson's attempted comeback. So that, far from being invisible, Johnson's photo will appear on campaign leaflets coming through some local doors at some point over the next couple of years. |