There is a rather furious backlash underway against the backlash that Grant Shapps finds himself in the middle of after his bingo gaffe. Supporters of the Tory Chairman suspect he has been stitched up in some way. I understand that the graphic was emailed out to a number of tweeting MPs who all tweeted it at roughly the same time – Shapps was the first. And as Chairman, he has to take the flak. Others privately suspect that other ministers who are after his job are responsible for briefings such as this one to the Sun that he could lose his job if the Tories take a drubbing in the European elections.
The Sun story is interesting because the person briefing it assumes that vengeful right wing Tories would automatically blame Shapps, when in fact there are as many who have been reassured by the work that he has done since taking the role in 2012 as those who dislike him.
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