A CONSERVATIVE County Durham MP has ‘ruffled a few feathers’ in his constituency by choosing a ‘brazen’ way of denying that he’s joining the Labour Party.
Richard Holden, MP for North West Durham, chose a unique way of announcing that he wouldn’t be defecting to the Labour Party earlier today; by sharing a text exchange between himself and a Times journalist.
Within the exchange, which he posted to his social media accounts, Mr Holden, who has represented the constituency since gaining his seat in the 2019 General Election, claimed that while he was “flattered” that Labour had “come knocking” – he would prefer to continue representing the Conservative Party.
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The response from the North West Durham MP was prompted after he was asked by the reporter: “Sorry to bother, but I’m being nagged by someone in North West Durham Labour who says you’re defecting. Can you confirm that this is total b******s?”
Mr Holden replied: “It’s flattering that North West Durham Labour party know that the only person who could win with a Labour rosette on is me. Sadly, for them, I’ll keep winning for North West Durham constituents on Shotley Bridge Hospital, better transport links, more police and building back better from the Coronavirus pandemic under the Conservative Party banner, which I’ve been a member of for over two decades.”
Mr Holden’s denial of joining Labour comes after reports that several Conservative MPs are considering defecting over to other political parties in light of the pressure against Prime Minister Boris Johnson and allegations over lockdown parties that were held in Number Ten Downing Street.
Yesterday (January 19), Christian Wakeford, MP for Bury South, announced that he would be departing the Conservative Party to join Labour – citing that Mr Johnson is “incapable of offering leadership”.
Despite Mr Holden denying that he was going to be crossing the political divide, it didn’t stop the way in which he revealed it from dividing the opinions of his followers.
One user didn’t hold back in their opinion of the MPs tactics, telling Mr Holden that he had shown “monstrous insensitivity”.
They said: “I am speechless, the shameless audacity of this post has shocked even me.
“I have tried to give you a chance Richard and have acknowledged some of the work you have done but sadly this demonstrates what I always feared, the party come first , over what is morally and legally right.
“This undermines everything you have done in North West Durham because you are not effectively telling us you cannot be trusted. You have just demonstrated very poor judgment and monstrous insensitivity. Do you really hold your constituents in such low regard?”
However, others leapt to the defence of the North West Durham representative and praised him, with one person writing: “For the first time in years we have an MP working for the people in North West Durham who isn't about gesture politics but working for the people.”
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