Will Damien be next to go Independent?
Preston-based MP Damien Moore has a dilemna this morning – will he support his own local councillor and former Greyfriars ward Tory colleague, Councillor Rowena Edmondson and ‘go independent’? Or will he stick with the official Tories, led in the City of Preston by the man who Damien himself so recently served as deputy leader, who is causing the Conservative Party in the city to fall apart?
The main reason cited by Cllr Edmondson for leaving the official Tories this week is a lack of confidence in the man who Damien Moore served as Deputy Leader of Preston Tory group from 2015 onwards.
Junior supermarket manager Damien Moore only arrived on Preston Council in May 2012 but by 2016 he was re-elected in Fulwood’s Greyfriars Ward and had risen to be the new Tory Deputy Leader. After standing unsuccessfully against Southport’s Lib Dem MP John Pugh in 2015, Damien, who had increased his commitment to Preston politics by seeking re-election to Preston Council in 2016 when he was also Chairman of Preston Conservatives and Chairman of Lancashire Area Tories. He increase his commitment to Preston still further when he stood for the County Council there in May 2017. Election would have increased his total councillor’s salary to over £16,000, however he was defeated by Lib Dem John Potter.
When Theresa May called a snap general election in June 2017, Mr Moore stood again in Southport and this time won. However, he continues to live in Fulwood, just around the corner from scandal-hit Geoff Driver, the Tories’ top man in Lancashire whose council seat Damien inherited. Mr Driver is on bail after arrest by police under the long-running ‘Operation Sheridan’ fraud/corruption investigation which has covered both Lancashire and Liverpool City councils.
Peculiarly, Damien Moore did not let go of his £70 per week Councillor’s ‘add on’ to his MP’s salary of £77,379 for an entire year after being elected to Parliament.