Gilmore confirms return

Lois Cairns at The Press writes:

Former National MP Aaron Gilmore will head back to Parliament in the new year.

Gilmore’s ranking on the National Party’s list means he has been called up to fill the spot left by the departure of long-serving National MP and Speaker of the House Lockwood Smith, who will take up his new role as high commissioner to Britain early next year.

Gilmore scraped into Parliament as a list MP in 2008 but lost his seat in the 2011 general election when special votes gave the Greens an extra seat at National’s expense. …

Gilmore said he hoped as an MP to be Christchurch-based because he wanted to help influence the city’s rebuild.

It will be good to have another Christchurch MP for National.

It has been reported that Paul Quinn, the next on the list after Gilmore, does not plan to return so if Groser does gain the WTO job, then Paul Foster-Bell would become an MP.