This afternoon the Government announced that it was moving two of the current team of eight assistant whips to other departments.
Stuart Andrew was previously a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Welsh Office, and Kelly Tolhurt was solely a whip.
At the time of writing the Gov.uk website confirms that Tolhurst has set aside her whip role. Andrew’s profile has yet to update, but if he too has departed the whips’ office it will be another stark illustration of the extraordinary rate of churn that has afflicted that crucial institution under Theresa May and, reportedly, David Cameron too.
Especially noteworthy is how briefly each have been in post: Andrew was only appointed last summer, and Tolhurt only joined the whips this January. She has been in post barely six months, which is reportedly about how long it takes to get to grips with the job; she has now been moved on again.
We shall be writing more on the Party’s mishandling of the whips’ office tomorrow.