The MP for Blackpool South – for now – is the 15th MP sitting as an independent. That’s more than the Liberal Democrats.
Allowing Matt Hancock to jet off to imaginary South Korean firms – or to eat very real kangaroo testicles down in Oz – is the price one pays for half-decent representatives.
As Labor and the Coalition struggle to land blows on each other, disenchanted voters are hungry for an alternative.
Onwards to Anglia, where the Liberal Democrats and Tories will be fighting hard over a small clutch of possible gains.
MPs would thus become the elected equivalents of the welfare scroungers of tabloid legend – dragging the reputation of Parliament even deeper into the mud.
An agreement is unlikely to be reached at all. But these estimates, however rough, should give pause for thought.
The Grantham and Stamford MP leaves the Conservative benches, to a cry of “Nick, don’t go” from one of his colleagues.
Don’t presume anything about a Commons vote on May’s deal. Especially a second vote. If she’s still in place after a first one goes down…