Good lord! At first I thought - WOW!
Now, on reflection, I'm like, huh? so what?
After all, it's a very empty gesture to cause a by-election in a very safe Tory seat and do a deal with your biggest threat, the Lib Dems not Labour, that they won't compete. A real man of principle might resign and leave parliament altogether.
If Labour decide not to put a candidate forward (which given how safe it is, would be understandable) then the whole thing can rightly be seen as a waste of time and money. Granted he has got today's headlines though.
Quick question though - under arcane rules, presumably David Davis the MP today would be seen by the authorities as a completely different person to the David Davis MP who comes back after his by-election, no? So could there be any expenses-type situations which would become null and void by resigning as an MP?
SH
