Corby Conspiracy – Delingpole Speaks

Following the Greenpeace expose of clueless Tory MP Chris Heaton Harris letting the cat out of the bag about the real reason for the fraudulent campaign by James “saviour of Western civilisation” Delingpole on the pretext of being a candidate for tomorrow’s Corby and East Northamptonshire by-election, the story has progressed and Home Secretary Theresa May has intervened.

Heaton Harris has been slapped down, but many questions remain unanswered. And they have not been answered despite Del Boy making his own statement to the bear pit that is Telegraph Blogs this afternoon. He tells his adoring readership (Sid and Doris Bonkers) that he will be penning an op-ed on the issue – Ker-ching! – and proceeds to reel off the usual tirade about wind farms.

Sadly, apart from wailing that the deeply subversive Guardian and Greenpeace are the real bad guys, and trying – unsuccessfully – to move the focus to the BBC (not even his own paper is buying that one), Del Boy does not tell us anything that he has not told us before, ad infinitum and indeed ad nauseam. He certainly does not deny being part of a plot to change Tory policy on renewable energy.

And it now transpires that electoral law may have been broken. But, before we get to that potentially excellent further source of spectator sport, let us consider the sequence of events in the Delingpole candidacy that never was.

8 August: Steerpike in the Speccy says Del has “mooted” a run in the campaign.

10 August: Steerpike confirms Del will not be standing.

4 September: David Hayes appointed energy minister in reshuffle.

6 September: Del now confirms his candidature in his Spectator blog (the post has since been deleted). This is picked up by both the Staggers and the Fawkes blog.

30 October: Hayes makes his “enough is enough” speech.

31 October: Del withdraws, citing Hayes speech as “victory”. Nomination papers had to be submitted, along with £500 deposit, by 1600 hours on that day.

James Mackenzie has now reported Heaton Harris and Delingpole to Northants Police for potential breaches of electoral law, most notably “corrupt withdrawal from candidature”. You can see the correspondence HERE. It is also highly likely, despite the spin telling “he was never really a candidate”, that Del Boy’s intervention in the campaign fulfils the “Meaning of candidate” under the Representation of the People act 1983. Put simply, Heaton Harris and Delingpole are in the shit big time.

And nobody, but nobody, is going to spin that one away. More to come.