Two Conservative MPs forced to stand down

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I have blogged several times about David Mackintosh the embattled Conservative MP for Northampton South.

The reasons his position has been under threat are given in this post, though I should emphasise that Mr Mackintosh has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

And recently his constituency party has turned against him.

Last night came the news that Mackintosh has decided to stand down and so will not be fighting the seat on 8 June.

So well done to Northampton South Conservatives for forcing his hand.

Then today we heard that Andrew Turner, the Conservative MP for the Isle of Wight, will not be standing then either.

As the Isle of Wight County Press tells it:

Andrew Turner has stepped down as Isle of Wight MP after an outcry over alleged comments about the LGBTQ community to a group of Christ the King College students earlier today (Friday). 

Mr Turner had been due to be re-selected this afternoon until a decision by the Tories to delay the process to avoid confusion with next week's local elections. 

But he faced mounting pressure to go, after students spoke out about alleged comments made by Mr Turner during an A Level politics class, in which they said he called homosexuality 'dangerous to society' and 'wrong.'

So it looks as though the hounding of Tim Farron over his views on the sinfulness of being gay and of gay sex has netted a victim in the shape of a Tory MP.

I hope the backwoods Tory councillor from round here who took to Twitter to display a hitherto unsuspected interest in the subject of gay sex is happy with this outcome.