Liberal MP Andrew Laming, who is currently at the centre of a shitstorm entirely of his own making, will quit federal politics at the next election, with colleagues saying he does not plan to recontest his seat as accusations of inappropriate behavior continue to mount.
This morning, deputy Liberal leader Josh Frydenberg confirmed the news in a statement, saying: “Andrew is not re-contesting the next election for the LNP, we’ll find a new candidate and that will be up to the preselectors.”
“The next election” seems like an awfully long time away when old mate could literally just quit politics right now, but I’m not the boss of Andrew Laming, I don’t get to tell him what to do, although again, I’ll just throw it out there that the option remains to just resign today.
Yesterday, following accusations of misconduct by three separate women – including one who accused him of taking photos of her while she was “bending over” to put items in a fridge – the MP made a statement, saying:
“I will step down from all Parliamentary roles effective immediately and complete both the counselling courses I committed to; as well as additional clinical counselling, and ask for privacy while that is completed.”
There have been calls from within Laming’s own party for him to quit politics, with Liberal MP Katie Allen and Senator Sarah Henderson telling the ABC’s Insiders that his behaviour was “unacceptable” and calling for him to quit at the next election.
I mean, if these people were genuinely appalled by Laming’s behaviour, you’d think they too would want him to resign from politics as quickly as possible, but then the Liberals would be at risk of losing their slim parliamentary majority, and we surely wouldn’t want that.
I’m not a cynical man, but it really makes you think, doesn’t it?
