So, at last, the news we were all waiting for…Lady Hermon doesn’t like Conservatives and won’t be standing as a Conservative and Unionist. Surprise, surprise.
As Mark Devenport notes over on his blog Lady Hermon is not one to give media interviews if she can avoid it. But today, keen to clear her name of any expenses impropriety, and to have a go at Tories claiming for chandeliers and moat cleaning, she blurted it out. She’s an Ulster Unionist and always will be so.
(Mind you, I get the impression that the Lady is not too keen on her own Party leadership either. But that’s another story).
I moderated several focus groups in her constituency a few months back (for her benefit, but she didn’t make the effort to attend any) to hear what a cross-section of constituents thought of her. Most respondents felt she was a hard-working MP. Many were impressed that she was a woman politician among a sea of old male farts. Quite a few seemed proud of her. Most thought she’d be even more attractive as a candidate if she stood as a Conservative.
But that appears unlikely to happen. Instead it looks as though she’ll run as an independent Ulster Unionist. Perhaps, if she does, UCUNF will be reluctant to put up a candidate. Who am I to say?
But it makes one wonder what there is left in this relationship with the UUP for the Conservative Party. It doesn’t even look like there’s an MP in the bag.
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