James Forsyth James Forsyth

David Davis gets the decent turnout he needed

David Davis cruised to victory last night in the Haltemprice and Howden by-election with 72 percent of the vote on a 34 percent turnout. Turnout was high enough for Davis to avoid embarrassment and attests to his popularity in his constituency. But one is still left wondering why he resigned as an MP forfeiting the chance to be the next Home Secretary to fight this by-election when his own party’s position was the same as his.

The question now becomes will Cameron bring Davis back. It is clear that Cameron will not reshuffle straight away to return Davis to his team, he doesn’t need to and Davis’s rash actions have made lots of those around the party leader even more wary of him. Davis himself is not agitating for an immediate return; on The Today Programme this morning he once more effusively praised his successor Dominic Grieve. However, if Cameron loses a shadow cabinet member to a scandal and has to reshuffle then all attention will be on whether or not Cameron brings back Davis.

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