Matthew Offord - The Incredible Invisible Shrinking MP

Matthew and friends

Matthew, where are you? Matthew, where are you?

It seems no one knows where Matthew is? In case you hadn't noticed, there is an election in May for the Mayor of London. Boris and Brian have taken a hammering in Barnet, due to Brian Colemans catastrophic parking charges blunders. In the circumstances, you would think that the local MP Matthew Offord would be out knocking on doors, trying to rally the troops.

I was not surprised to be told that there was a story on the Hendon Conservatives website about an MP out on the streets of Mill Hill, helping octogenerian Councillor John Hart delivering BackBoris leaflets. That's what Tory MP's are meant to do, isn't it? What is rather more surprising is that the MP in question is not the MP for Hendon. He's not even an MP in the London Borough of Barnet, in fact he's not even an MP in London. Nope, the MP helping dear old Johnny Hart is Dan Byles, MP for a Warwickshire constituency - http://www.hendonconservatives.org/news/delivering-envelopes-boris-johnsons-re-election-can-be-fun - one has to wonder if any sane politician who is familiar with Barnet would really want to go out on the streets canvassing for Brian Coleman right now.

Mind you given the complete disappearance of Matthew Offord from the streets of Hendon, I bet more people would recognise Mr Byle than Matthew. I bumped into a local Tory activist delivering leaflets and asked where Matthew was. His response "I dunno, probably walking his dog". I asked how the campaign was going, to which he rolled his eyes "If it wasn't for the fact that I hate Livingstones guts, I'd have jacked it in". Sadly I think that reflects the views of a significant number of Barnet Tories. More than a couple have told me privately that they will be abstaining in the GLA vote. It will be fascinating to see how many people in Barnet tick the box for Boris and don't for Brian.