OPPOSITION parties say they are ready and waiting for a contest in Reading West, be it a byelection or a general election – even though Sir Alok Sharma has not stepped down.
The MP, who won the seat in the 2010 general election, was said to have been offered a peerage in the resignation honours list of disgraced prime minister Boris Johnson. However, when this was published on Friday, June 9, no MPs were elevated to the House of Lords.
Under parliamentary rules, had he been named, he would have to resign from parliament immediately, rather than waiting until the next general election to accept, meaning a byelection would have to be called.
This is the situation in the Mid Bedfordshire parliamentary seat, as Nadine Dorries has announced her immediate resignation, and in Uxbridge, where Mr Johnson was MP.
While there have whispers of Sir Alok moving to the House of Lords as a result of the honour, he has not commented publicly on them.
A report on Saturday, June 10, on the Daily Express’ website quotes a source saying that Sharma is 50/50 on resigning, and is also hurt that his peerage didn’t go through.
The same source is predicting six byelections due by Monday.
Reading Today has asked the MP for his view, but has yet to receive a response.
In the 2019 general election, Sir Alok’s majority was just 4,117, and the seat is a key target for Labour in any forthcoming poll. The two parties have been neck and neck in both the 2017 and 2019 contests.
If there was to be a byelection, it will be the last time that the seat will be contested. Under the Boundary Commision for England’s changes, Reading East and West will become Woodley and Earley, Reading, and Mid Berkshire.
Although Reading Labour has yet to select its candidate, leader Cllr Jason Brock says it is ready to take its message to the doorsteps whenever that might be.
“A contest in Reading West would offer residents the opportunity to send a message to this broken Conservative Government: it’s time for change. Labour is ready to be that change and we’ll be campaigning for a new Labour MP who can make a positive difference for our town and our country,” he said.
“It’s time for Reading to have a Parliamentary representative who advocates for us instead of someone mindlessly backing a Tory Government that have twiddled their thumbs while mortgages, food prices, and energy bills have risen out of control.”
Meri O’Connell has been the candidate for the Liberal Democrats in the 2015, 2017 and 2019 general elections. It is not yet known if she will stand again, but she remains a councillor for Tilehurst.
Reading Lib Dem chair Dr John Grout would relish a contest.
“Bring it on,” he said. “The Conservatives would be certain to lose a Reading West byelection: we had a landslide on West Berkshire Council last month and are determined to give disillusioned voters a home.
“If Alok Sharma bottles it, we are ready and will have a candidate in place very quickly – but it would be an ignominious end to his stint as an MP if he decided to leave his constituents in the lurch.”
He continued: “It is a disgrace that Boris Johnson’s honours list saw the light of day at all, and we hope that Alok Sharma has the principles to remain an MP for the remainder of the 58th Parliament.
“A byelection now would be a (further) colossal waste of public money and effort. It’s likely that any MP elected would only sit for a few months before the next General Election must be held in any case, at which Reading West will be abolished under the boundary review.
“As things stand, the Reading Liberal Democrats look forward to helping our colleagues in Mid Bedfordshire and Uxbridge get a good result. We are keeping a keen eye on things here too, of course – we would relish a byelection here, but we hope that Alok Sharma has more of a sense of restraint than Nadine Dorries.”
And Rob White, Green Party councillor and leader of the main opposition party in Reading, said: “The Green Party aims to contest all elections. Once selected our candidate will work hard for a fairer, greener and cleaner town.”
