Specialist company Electoral Calculus last year gave Sir Robert Buckland just a 3% chance of hanging on to his Swindon South seat at the next election. He has a majority of 6,600 – the biggest since he first won there in 2010 – but on current polling it seems unlikely to be enough.

It doesn’t hurt to have a backup plan, then. Perhaps that was the motivation for Buckland taking a part-time consultancy role with London firm Payne Hicks Beach. He will be the firm’s new head of policy and senior counsel, which sounds like a meaty job, though his team was at pains to stress that public service remains his ‘primary focus’.

We’re yet to be told how many hours Buckland will devote to his sideline, or what he will be paid.

Obiter will keep an eye on the next register of interests. The good folk of Swindon South will doubtless take an interest too.

 

 

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