Skidmore ‘self-indulgent’ for forcing by-election in seat set to be abolished, Tories say
Former energy minister Chris Skidmore has been accused of being “self-indulgent” for standing down months before a general election when his seat is set to be abolished.
Mr Skidmore announced on Friday that he was resigning from the Conservative Party and would seek to quit Parliament “as soon as possible”.
But he had already announced his attention to stand down at the next election in November, and his seat is set to be abolished, meaning that his replacement would only serve as an MP for a few months as a general election is due to be held later this year.
Tory MP Liam Fox, a former defence secretary, was heavily critical of his former colleague, arguing that forcing a by-election in his Kingswood constituency was a “slap in the face” to Mr Skidmore’s constituents.
Speaking on GB News he said: “If your seat is being abolished in the boundary changes, which Chris Skidmore’s is, and you cause an unnecessary by-election, it’s not only costing taxpayers money, it’s a slap in the face to your own party workers who’ve loyally tried to get you elected over the years, to your parliamentary colleagues and the wider party, and I think it’s self-indulgent and I think it’s disloyal.”
And former deputy Prime Minister Damian Green also told GB News “I’m pretty appalled . I’m disappointed that Chris has done that. His seat’s abolished, he was standing down anyway. This is a wholly unnecessary by-election.
“The Prime Minister will be entirely justified to feel very, very cross about this and all his constituency workers who presumably supported him for years.”
Several other MPs have criticised Mr Skidmore including Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker who wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “imposing another by-election this close to the general just feels gratuitous”.
In a statement on Friday Mr Skidmore said he was quitting in protest at the Government’s decision to allow new oil and gas licences in the North Sea.
“We can not expect other countries to phase out their fossil fuels when at the same time we continue to issue new licences or to open new oil fields,” he said.
Mr Skidmore, who led a Government review of net zero, added that the Prime Minister’s environmental stance is “wrong and will cause future harm”.
The MP for Kingswood in South Gloucestershire said the “future will judge harshly” anyone who backs the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill due to be voted on in the Commons on Monday.
He said he could not vote for legislation that “clearly promotes the production of new oil and gas” and would show the UK is “rowing ever further back from its climate commitments”.
“To fail to act, rather than merely speak out, is to tolerate a status quo that cannot be sustained,” he said in his resignation statement.
Mr Skidmore said he would resign the Conservative whip, making him an independent, and quit as an MP “as soon as possible”.
Reform UK has announced it will not field a candidate in the by-election, the date for which has not been set, claiming it is a “grotesque abuse” of taxpayer funds.
In a video on X, the party’s leader Richard Tice said Mr Skidmore was “forcing the local authority to spend about £250,000 of hard-pressed council taxpayers’ cash to hold that by-election”.
He added that Mr Skidmore “claims to be concerned about the environment”, holding a by-election would “consume about a million pages of paper from trees”.
