I’m not sure that Richard Holden MP for North West Durham, who is making a lot of the noise about this, is doing himself any favours. He holds a very small majority (1144) in the red wall seat formerly held by Laura Pidcock. He’s now starting to climb the career ladder and will be desperate to hang on to that seat in the next GE.
Holden was a former aide to Defence Secretary Michael Fallon who was forced to resign over inappropriate sexual behaviour. Holden was also accused and tried over allegations of sexual assault but found not guilty. It was a case in which Carrie Symonds had given evidence against him after which Holden’s career was effectively put on hold when Johnson blocked the then Chief Whip Mark Stevens’s recommendation that Holden be given a government post.
He’s now back in favour as a newly-appointed PPS in Nadine Dorries’ Department for Digital Culture, Media and Sport. Nadine Dorries who wants to diminish the BBC and sell off Channel 4. Remember it was Laura Pidcock who campaigned against the removal of free TV licences for those aged 75 and over albeit falling foul of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards in he way that she did it.
Richard Holden had been very active and vocal in local anti-littering and clean-up campaigns and quite rightly so. Unfortunately, he called people “litter-tossers”… and was then caught littering himself during an election count and fined £100. Littering is a criminal offence.
Returning yet again to the Ministerial Code and the Seven Principles of Public Life, my question is whether Holden, in seeking to undermine Starmer in the run up to the local elections, is acting selflessly or in his own self interest?