| Topic: | Re:The arrogance of politicians | |
| Posted by: | Richard Greenhough | |
| Date/Time: | 20/05/15 12:05:00 |
| "I'd be interested to see how this might be accomplished -- perhaps by bumping off the sitting MP in a safe Labour seat?" They could always persuade some veteran MP like Gerald Kaufman that it was a good moment to apply for the Chiltern Hundreds and then take a seat in the Lords. In 1964 Harold Wilson's Foreign Secretary-designate Patrick Gordon Walker lost his seat in the October General Election, and Reginald Sorensen, the veteran MP for Leyton, was persuaded to take a Life Peerage to create a vacancy for him. Leyton's electorate showed what they thought of this manoeuvre by returning a Conservative in the January 1965 by-election, forcing Wilson to find a new Foreign Secretary. |