There’s an interesting snippet of information over at Guido’s place about Matt Hancock’s constituency. It seems that at least some of this MP’s constituents are unhappy about his unavailability due to his decision to take part in ‘I’m a Celebrity….’ According to Guido he has been approached by a constituent from Mr Hancock’s area who is angry that this MP is not available to help constituents. This person must I believe be pretty cheesed off with their MP’s performance as most people faced with an issue with their MP would shrug their shoulders and get on with life, not take the story to a major outlet like Guido.
Guido said that the ‘infuriated’ constituent contacted the outlet after an email exchange with a caseworker employed by Mr Hancock who told him that the MP is unlikely to be available to do the job he’s paid £80k plus for until at least December 1st. Guido said:
The caseworker says that “Matt would of course be happy to meet you at one of his surgeries. At the moment I am unsure of the date for Matt’s next surgery appointment.” Pushed by the angry constituent, Matt’s staffer says:
“It is likely that the next available appointment will be on 1 December, but as soon as I have further details I will be get in touch with you to arrange.”
I must admit that this sort of unnecessary unavailability is not the sort of thing that endears an MP to either their voters or to their local political party. The sort of behaviour which demeans those who both voted for him or require him to act on their behalf as their representative in Parliament would be a bit dodgy at the best of times but to do this now, when the country is facing massive problems, looks inexcusable.
It’s not that long before the next General Election and the Tories will face a lot of challenges in the South and East of England from the Liberal Democrats who will be working hard to try to take Tory seats in places like Suffolk and its likely that the Lib Dems probably have their ground game running already in that constituency. Therefore if I was part of the local Conservative Association I would be wondering if someone like Matt Hancock is the right person for the job and whether he should be deselected sooner rather than later in order to give a new candidate time to bed in and be in a position to effectively fight for this seat.
At £80k + a years plus expenses with the near certainly of not being re elected at the next general election I am sure the poor lamb will cling to his position as long as possible.