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BORIS JOHNSON WILL suffer another major blow to his authority if the Tories lose the ultra-safe seat of North Shropshire in a by-election triggered by Owen Paterson’s resignation.
Voters head to the polls in the West Midlands constituency on Thursday, with the Liberal Democrats eying a real chance to overturn a near 23,000-vote majority.
Not only was the vote triggered by a Tory sleaze scandal, it comes after the Prime Minister was battered by allegations of lockdown-breaching parties in Downing Street last Christmas.
His hopes to defend the seat will be amplified by the massive rebellion Conservative backbenchers dealt him on Tuesday over his new coronavirus restrictions as the Omicron variant surged.
Paterson represented the constituency for 24 years until his resignation after the Prime Minister’s botched attempt to shield him from a 30-day suspension.
Johnson attempted to force a Tory-led review of the rules for MPs after Paterson was found to have breached lobbying rules for two companies paying him £100,000 a year.
Multiple fresh allegations of sleaze were levelled at the Tories during the row and ultimately the MP was forced to resign, saying he wanted to escape the “cruel world of politics”.
North Shropshire has returned a Tory MP in every vote since 1983, which was the constituency’s first election in its current form.
But the area has been true blue, only twice voting for another colour, since the Conservative Party’s inception in 1830.
In the 2019 general election, the Tories won 62.7% of the vote and held the seat with a majority of 22,949 over Labour, with the Liberal Democrats in third.
So loss for Conservative candidate Neil Shastri-Hurst to Lib Dem Helen Morgan would be a major upset for the Tories.
Bookmakers have put the Liberal Democrats favourite for victory, while campaigners on the ground believe the result is too close to call and leader Ed Davey described it as a “coin toss”.
Defeat would compound a torrid period for Johnson after 100 Conservatives defied the leadership to vote against the introduction of mandatory Covid health passes for entry to large venues – the biggest rebellion since he entered No 10.
Asked on Wednesday if Johnson would quit if North Shropshire falls, the Prime Minister’s press secretary said: “We are fighting for every vote.”
The result is expected to be announced in the early hours of Friday.
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Lowry will show Naughten how the big boys do cute-hoorism and get away with it.
“A great little country to do business in” – Enda Kenny
@Bobby Moore: I wonder what Lowry and Grealish have gotten for this?
@ObsidianShine: tax payers money
@Bobby Moore: Wikipedia, Charlie Flanagan’s father, “one of the cutest of cute hoors in the history of the dail”.
@ObsidianShine: Ain’t no givvin with out the gettin, sez I.
@Bobby Moore: Fine Gael are rotten to the core, power crazy and will do business with any kind of character or chancer. They are terrified to face the public, absolutely terrified.
@Adrian: the apple didn’t fall far from the tree
@Bobby Moore: address the question to the Tipperary electorate not the present government most of whom were schoolboys then…..despite history its necessary to keep nutters at bay….
@Frank Cauldhame: I’d say you are talking about the wrong party; how is poor ould Mehole these days?
FG happy to accept support from a TD found guilty on two charges , fined 15k by the courts and banned from being a director of a company for 3 years . We are going nowhere as a country. The standard is set from the top.
@john mccarthy: One crook out, one crook in…
@john mccarthy:
Well, a fair number of his constituents seem to support him too.
@Michael Kavanagh: Probably say’s more about the people that vote the likes of this lot into power than the people IN power.
@john mccarthy: remember who voted for Lowry was the people in Tipperary, people like you or me !
@acallkelly: I’m from Tipperary and it’s pulpit politics at its best! Lowry gets his vote in north Tipperary and not south Tipperary. Lowry is stuck in everything and takes credit for everything that happens in Tipperary.
@Michael Kavanagh: and that is the problem. Dumb electorate
@Michael Kavanagh: no shortage of gobshi#es in his constituency it appears.
@Charliegrl80: all the stuff that Alan “AK47″ does lol.
@john mccarthy: have you got the FF list to hand?
This is just another example of getting away with it Irish style, The broadband contract is compromised and has to be rolled out by the government immediately, you cant have a tender with one group that’s not a competition and it’s not good for the country.
@Dot Com: The irony of depending on cutting a deal for lowry’s vote because someone resigned over a dodgy contract awarding process is just too on the nose
@Dot Com: Lowry supporting the Government means DOB gets the contract.
Maybe Leo should have given Lowry the ministry for communications. He has plenty of experience!!
Lowry should have been disbarred from ever going forward for election for anything. Naughten should also be disbarred.
Between “Supply and Confidence” corrupt TDs and no viable opposition. Democracy is dead. Dictatorship by FFG has taken over.
@Dave Doyle: we have free elections that’s hardly a dictatorship
@Fergus Sheahan: Free elections means SFA when we have a Dail with no viable opposition to hold the government to account.
@Dave Doyle: We have two parties pretending to oppose each other and the public just let them away with it. They are currently a coalition in all but name yet they will still pretend to oppose each other so that who ever doesn’t get voted in next time can still sit on the Big Boy benches. The Irish public lets them away with it because IRA.
It’s never going to get better here:
*.
@Dave Doyle: its still not a dictatorship, you are free to vote for whoever you want or run yourself without fear of repercussion, to compare what we have in Ireland to a dictatorship simply isn’t true
@Fergus Sheahan: Between them FFG are denying an election. Even a fixed Claire Byrne poll can’t hide that the people want an election. Dictatorship is a word to describe said..
@Fergus Sheahan: I’m sure the present situation where there is no real actual and viable opposition in the Dail is unconstitutional.
@acallkelly: So?
@Dave Doyle: it really isn’t, just because you believe its not viable doesn’t make it unconstitutional
@Fergus Sheahan: Can you point out anywhere FF showed any real opposition to FG?
@Dave Doyle: that’s still not a dictatorship
@Fergus Sheahan: One party rule is dictatorship.
Surprise surprise that these 2 are in the mix!!!!!
@CtrlAltDel: please explain
@Anthony: Google it.
Hope the people remember …
we have a weak judiciary, a police force that’s tied hand &foot, an underresourced army &a populace full of gombeems. there isn’t a country in the would like it. It’s just heaven for our political class, they can do what they like, pay themselves what they want ¬hing will ever be done about it. any other country on the world would either have a coup d’etat or at the very least, thousands of angry citizens on the streets. but not here.
Compelling self interest,more like.
@Honeybee: They can do what ever they like. knowing they will never see the inside of a prison. and corruption keeps happening again and agian…
The two most powerful guys in the dail right now!
supporting a gov full of incompetent politicians.
Is this the revival of Lowrys super casino idea???
@Séadhna Logan: Now that wouldn’t surprise me at all!
I’ll never understand what Tipperary sees in Lowry. I just can’t comprehend it. He’s like the abusive and destructive partner that families won’t speak openly about and still give him a vote EVERY TIME. He’s so corrupt he probably wipes his ass with cheques.
@Kevin O’Shea: but shur, didn’t he fix the road ?
@Kevin O’Shea: Because he gets a deal for the locals regardless of who is in power. The one consistency for every government in the last 20 years is Lowry lurking in the background willing to sell his support for personal favours.
The reality it seems is most people don’t care about corruption so long as it personally benefits themselves.
Always done in the “Public interest,” or the interests of “democracy.” Of course it would never ever be done in the interests of political self preservation.
Lowry is a convicted criminal. That’s a fact. That’s all we need to know about democracy in Ireland.
Government dependent on criminal.
whatever I feel about FF/FG, I despise the fact that the government has to rely on independents to pass legislation, they will of course get sweet deals for their constituencies and themselves.
@Lisa Byrne: j
Just signed in .Can’t believe the absolute vile of the contributers.
Nothing constructive just vile .
Signing out .
Yes I agree, they can do what they like. Pay them selves big amounts of wages, you are not talking about 5 euro a week left waiting for that until spring, I can’t for the life of me, to see two top Governments to gather, that can’t stop the terrible behavior of the Banks towards people, how council houses and others are closed, red tape, people Left waiting how a remady can’t be found for the people of this country human beings left waiting on trolleys, appointments, homelessness left waiting including children for a roof over their head, now that the two top Teams are working to gather, down the years I seen it all, opposition criticising the Government, and when they got in power they were no better, poor Leadership, poor example, for our Country a small Country can’t afford to be paying such extremely high wages to politictions, who have been in all these Jobs of housing, Health, ect so sad
Anarchy the only remedy
There is a compelling interest to keep keep their seats and build up the bank balance,the scallywags.
Lowry still sniffing around amazing hes still at the top of the tree stealing our money!!
Thank you north tipp.
A pox on the both of them.
It’s actually pathetic that ppl in Tipp voted back Lowry. The Irish that are like this deserve everything lousy and in terms of corruption they get to see. Lowry is just a bowsie he’s not a politician.
All these comments like seriously did ye expect anything else. Wake up and smell the roses will he for godsake. Charlie haughey showed them how it’s done..
Maybe its time to do an Iceland and physically remove these gombeebs from the Dail.
Compelling interest to who exactly?
In the best interests of themselves. Ireland is not a big player on the world stage no matter what way you try to spin it. A Brexit deal will not rely on the input of inept parasites in the Dail.
Lowry like a boomerang. Back just in time. Comical if it weren’t so disgusting.
I don’t understand how everyone keeps saying that we need a stable government for Brexit talks. The FG approach, as with their approach to the housing crisis, is to do nothing. It is the EU who are negotiating with the UK, not the Irish government. They don’t seem to be doing anything at all in terms of contingency planning.
The comments regarding no “quick fix” for the housing crisis is disingenuous also. They have done nothing to relieve the pressure on the housing market. The strong builders lobby has a hold over FG. FG stability is the last thing we need now.
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