THE TOP 20 CHICKENS

Following Labour's u-turn, the government's general election bill was passed in the Commons by a whopping 418 majority.  It still has to pass through the House of Lords, but is likely to gain royal assent by the end of the week.  Predictably it won't move as swiftly as the Benn Surrender Act did.  Nothing moves that fast!

Embarrassingly for Corbyn almost half of his own MPs refused to back his newfound enthusiasm for a general election. 104 abstained in the final vote, while a further 11 voted against, making a complete mockery of Corbyn's triumphant announcement earlier in the day that his party was "totally united".

There were 20 MPs in total who opposed the final reading of the bill, many of whom clearly desperate to cling on to the Westminster gravy train for as long as possible.  More than half of them were Labour, including the most despicable parasites of all ie. those who are standing down anyway at the next election, but who wanted to stay on and milk the system just that little bit longer.  They are all unapologetic Remainers, so some of them will be fearing the election of a pro-Leave Parliament.  We've put our suggestions for their main motives in italics.  Obviously there's no doubting the motives for Change UK...

Labour

Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West) - huge Leave vote in his constituency, running scared
Margaret Beckett (Derby South) - big Leave vote in her constituency, running scared
Ann Clwyd (Cynon Valley) - standing down, wanted to ride the train a bit longer
Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme) - standing down, wanted to ride the train a bit longer
Peter Kyle (Hove) - safe seat, doesn't think Labour can win
Dave Lammy (Tottenham) - safe seat, doesn't think Labour can win
Ian Lucas (Wrexham) - standing down, wanted to ride the train a bit longer
Albert Owen (Ynys Môn) - standing down, wanted to ride the train a bit longer
Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) - has not yet been reselected, fears deselection
Owen Smith (Pontypridd) - announced after the vote that he is standing down, didn't think Labour could win
Daniel Zeichner (Cambridge) - recent poll suggests a Lib Dem surge could unseat him, running scared

Change UK

Ann Coffey (Stockport) - cheerio, cheerio, cheerio
Mike Gapes (Ilford South) - cheerio, cheerio, cheeri-oooo
Anna Soubry (Broxtowe) - cheerio, cheerio, cheerio, cheeri-oh

Plaid Cymru

Jonathan Edwards (Carmarthen East & Dinefwr) - constituency voted Leave, running scared
Liz Saville Roberts (Dwyfor Meirionnydd) - shrinking majority, running scared
Hywel Williams (Arfon) - wafer thin majority, running scared

SNP

Angus MacNeil (Na h-Eileanan an lar) - shrinking majority, running scared

Green

Caroline Lucas (Brighton Pavilion) - safe seat, fears a Brexit majority

Independent Unionist

Lady Hermon (North Down) - shrinking majority, running scared

IAN LUCAS & HIS MYSTERY VOTES

A brief Twitter exchange took place earlier today between Richey and Labour MP Ian Lucas.  The Remainer MP for Wrexham/Wrecsam was called out on his frequent Brexit blocking antics.

Lucas then retweeted us and informed everyone that he'd "voted for two".

To the common viewer he appears to be suggesting that he backed the withdrawal agreement twice.  However, he voted against said agreement on all three occasions it was presented.

He backed more than two options in each round of indicative votes, so it's an absolute mystery as to what he is talking about.  What is for certain is he is one of many Labour MPs seeking to reverse Brexit in the face of a Leave vote in his own constituency (58%).  By his own admission he says his stance could cost him his seat in the next election, a seat that has been held by Labour since 1935.  A 'Leave alliance' could oust him, ideally with the Brexit Party giving the Tories a free run, but unfortunately Boris Johnson categorically ruled it out over the weekend.  Bad move Boris!

Wrexham general election 2017

Ian Lucas (Lab) 17,153 (48.9%) +11.7%
Andrew Atkinson (Con) 15,321 (43.7%) +12.1%
Carrie Harper (Plaid) 1,753 (5.0%) −2.6%
Carole O'Toole (Lib Dem) 865 (2.5%) −2.8%

Wrexham general election 2015

Ian Lucas (Lab) 12,181 (37.2%) +0.4%
Andrew Atkinson (Con) 10,350 (31.6%) +6.2%
Niall Plevin-Kelly (UKIP) 5,072 (15.5%) +13.2%
Carrie Harper (Plaid) 2,501 (7.6%) +1.5%
Rob Walsh (Lib Dem) 1,735 (5.3%) −20.5%
David Munnerley (Green) 669 (2.0%) New
Brian Edwards (Ind) 211 (0.6%) New

Additional reading:  Staggering Arrogance

STAGGERING ARROGANCE

It's been a week in which hundreds of MPs have shown their utter contempt for democracy.  Amendment after cynical amendment was passed by the traitors, overseen and helped along by the facilitator John Bercow.  We didn't think their contempt for us peasants could get any more blatant, but we were wrong!

The following tweet was posted yesterday by the Labour MP for Wrexham - Ian Lucas.  At the time of writing he hasn't deleted it and it's still there for all to see.

Staggering.

Lucas has come a long way from his council house roots in Gateshead.  He had an impressive legal career before he was selected to contest the Wrexham constituency in 2001.  But no matter how far he has elevated himself above his working class roots, he is an arrogant fool to dismiss his constituents in such a condescending manner.  Wrexham is far from a safe seat for Labour, although it was a different story back in 2001...

When Lucas first won the seat he commanded a majority of 9,188 over the Conservatives.  His majority is now 1,832 over the Conservatives.  His majority was slashed by over 5,000 votes between 2001 and 2010, a downward trend that only ended in 2017 when his majority increased by just one vote.

Wrexham is a 58% Leave-voting constituency and has been held by Labour since 1935.  This week Lucas voted to block no deal and to extend Article 50.  If he wants to be the MP that loses this seat after almost a century he is going the right way about it.