With two looming by-elections, a selection dilemma is facing local Tories in both Wakefield and Tiverton: who do they choose to be their parliamentary candidates? A variety of names have been bandied about but one above all is the commentariat’s choice: David Frost, Boris Johnson’s former Brexit chief, now languishing on the backbenches in the House of Lords after quitting the Cabinet in December. The Telegraph has been loudly banging the drum for Frost – unsurprising, perhaps, given he is the paper’s new star columnist – while the onetime boss of Scottish whisky has given a round of high-profile interviews, including on GB News last night with longtime admirer Nigel Farage.
On last night’s programme, Frost indulged such a notion, suggesting he would indeed be willing to go into ‘real politics’ in his words. There is just one slight problem of course: Frost is a member of the Upper House, meaning he would have to resign his seat in the Lords in order to sit in the Commons. There is an intriguing constitutional novelty here: under the existing legislation, it’s not sure whether the noble lord would need to resign before or after he was elected to the Commons. In other words, can he stand and then, if he loses, still sit in the Upper House.
One thing’s for sure – Frost is certainly doing little to quell such speculation. Following his comments last night, he subsequently retweeted a thread by the House of Lords’ head of research services discussing whether or not the staunch Brexiteer would have to resign. Ironically the last peer who threatened to quit the Lords and stand for the Commons was none other than arch-Remainer Andrew Adonis.
Just one more headache to keep Boris up at night…
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