We at Debunking have heard this rumour for what seems like an age. It is still oddly doing the rounds so we’ve decided to do what we do best and debunk it.
Eddie Hughes is the incumbent Tory MP for Walsall North, as his constituency will no longer exist due to boundary changes next year. Tamworth as well is having a boundary change in the next general election. So Eddie Hughes applied for and got the new Tamworth seat which officially would be up for the next parliamentary election sometime next year. Now for the spanner in those Tory works. Due to the resignation of Pincher, all of a sudden there’s a vacancy in Tamworth for a by election under the old boundary and Eddie can’t fill it otherwise there would be yet another by election in Walsall North costing tax payers even more cash. So the Tories had to pick someone quickly to fill the gap. That gap filler is Tamworth Borough Councillor Andy Cooper who at least lives here and not in Moseley like the Labour candidate (and having checked the parliamentary register for Eddie Hughes, he apparently has had a property in Stoneydelph for years).
Now the question of course that was on people’s minds (or those of us sad enough to follow politics) is what would happen to Andrew Cooper if he actually won (which Debunking called as a no chance). Well it seems we only have to go to the horses mouth to find out as it would seem to put the seat warmer business to rest. Eddie Hughes has openly declared he will not take the seat off Andrew Cooper if he wins.
So surely that is quite simple for even the Facebook trolls and less well informed Tamworthians to understand? If Andy Cooper doesn’t win the election, then Eddie Hughes fights the seat as originally planned at the general election, by which time his pals in Government might stop sabotaging their own party. Who knows what might happen between now and then? Eddie Hughes might well have had enough of politics, Tamworth or both by then!