Another one gone. Another expensive and utterly wasteful by-election on the horizon that’ll see the winner sit in parliament for a few weeks summer recess and then a winter election.
All this waiting around sure doesn’t seem to be good for anyone but the guys running the show.
On the plus side, that’s one less Tory MP in the short term and probably one more Labour MP with an incumbency bonus at the GE.
The mention of cost has me curious. Are by-elections costly for (I’m guessing) the electoral commission to run?
I imagine the main costs involved are party funds for campaigning, but they probably see it as a proxy for the main event, so hardly money wasted. Even if it were, its not public money.
I know next to nothing about this but I’d assume the public money cost would be around sending out all the voter cards, organising venues for the voting, cost of processing the votes at various stages etc.
