Are you, like me, struggling to get a handle on the current government’s approach to empathy? It increasingly seems to be a commodity that many Conservative MPs believe should be available to Conservative MPs only. A few weeks ago the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, described William Wragg – fellow Tory MP and then-chair of the public administration and constitutional affairs committee – as “courageous”. By way of a reminder, “courageous” is the sort of word we would typically reserve for people who’ve singlehandedly held a bridge for the Allies against the Germans despite being wounded/posted a picture on social media of themselves without makeup; whereas Mr Wragg had simply shared MPs’ private phone numbers with a blackmailer in the current security environment. Is that brave? If it is, can the no-makeup girls please get a VC?
Further bravery seems to have been on show during yesterday’s local elections, which took place under electoral law changed by the Tories in 2022. All voters are now required to present an approved form of photo ID, which even Jacob Rees-Mogg last year implied was an attempt to “gerrymander” and “upset a system that worked perfectly well”. Flash-forward to the eve of this week’s polls, and the Ipswich MP Tom Hunt – who, naturally, voted in favour of voter ID – could be found informing a WhatsApp group of local party members that it “turns out I have no appropriate ID to vote tomorrow”, and requesting someone to “do the honours” and assist him in getting an emergency proxy vote. Unclear which lucky local did “the honours”, but Ipswich Labour used a screenshot of his APB in their own ad to remind people that they need voter ID, warning: “Don’t be like Tom.”
