Two Senior LibDems Defect to the Conservatives

Richard Willis has news of two fairly significant LibDem defections to the Conservatives in London.

Chamali Fernando, a barrister from Finchley, was a contender to be the Lib Dem London Mayoral candidate in 2007 and her brother Chandila was a candidate for Lib Dem President. She had been a party member for 20 years. The loss of two such senior party activists will be a blow to the Lib Dems and a boost for Cameron’s Conservatives. The news follows the defection of Lib Dem PPC Norsheen Bhatti who was seen as a high flier within the party.

Seems to be a bit of a trend at the moment. I've lost count of the number of LibDem PPCs who have defected to the Tories over the last couple of years. It is well into double figures now, I think.

One in One Out for the LibDems

Chris Huhne's Labour opponent Dan Clarke today announced on LabourHome he is resigning and joining the LibDems.

I no longer believe the Labour Party is committed to realising the dreams of people like me. The Labour Party's actions and policies today seem to be aimed more towards gaining petty advantages over opponents than towards achieving the ideals of its supporters. Brown's leadership is becoming a depiction of politics for its own sake.

At the same time, the LibDem Candidate for Chelsea & Fulham Norsheen Bhatti defected to the Conservatives. She said...

The Conservatives are the only party to offer a clear and coherent vision to mend broken Britain. They have the policies that can change Britain and make a real difference to people's lives. I want to be part of that change. Under Nick Clegg's leadership the Liberal Democrats have been drifting into the wilderness and neglecting their supporters.

UPDATE: Richard Willis has news of a prominent Scottish Labour supporter who has defected to the Tories this weekend.

The Importance of Alice Mahon

Former maverick left wing Labour MP leaves the Labour Party. 'Big deal' will be the spin from Labour Central. 'No one outside the Labour Party has ever heard of her', I can imagine them saying.

But Alice Mahon does matter. So did Peter Temple-Morris, John Lee, Peter Thurnham and Alan Howarth, when these little known names left the Conservative Party in the 1990s. They symbolised a deep malaise within the Party, which was regarded as deeply intolerant and ideological. In Alice Mahon's case she has left, not because of Labour's policies, but because of the way the Party is conducting itself in office. That's perhaps even more damning. And don't believe she just reflects a narrow left wing viewpoint within the Labour Party. Indeed, I suspect most Labour members are privately expressing similar concerns at the moment.

I'd like to think that there could be some high profile defections over the next few months. But I'm long enough in the tooth to realise that the Labour Party is a far more tribal beast than the Tory Party. But the fact that the sinking ship is slowly being deserted by people like Alice Mahon is evidence enough that there's trouble at t'mill for Gordon Brown. Leadership chatter is already starting again, and any bounce that Brown got from the G20 was illusory. And next he has the Euro and local elections to contend with.

The Yorkshire Post has the full story HERE. Their headline seems to indicate she is still an MP...

Tory Defector's Inconvenient Truth

When I heard this afternoon of the defection of Cllr Les Byrom to Labour (ostensibly over 42 days) I thought to myself it was a bit odd, seeing as though it has been Tory policy to oppose extending the pre charge detention period for at least four years. So I rang a friend in the North West to ask for some background. All is, as is usual with defections, not quite what it seems.

Cllr Byrom has had a nice little earner as Tory chairman of the Merseyside Fire & Rescue Authority (£7,596). Sadly (for him) his term comes to an end next week, and the Tory leader on Sefton Borough Council has decided not to renominate him. He has moved heaven and earth to try to get her to reverse the decision, but she has stuck to her guns. He even tried to enlist the support of Bob Neill and Eric Pickles. Why is he so anxious? Because without that position, he cannot continue as Chairman of the LGA Fire Committee (remuneration £9,996). So by losing these two jobs, Cllr Byrom has lost more than £17,500 in allowances.

When I spoke to Eric on something else half an hour ago his ghast was well and truly flabbered. He said he was astounded at Byrom's defection and what he was saying on the BBC News Channel, especially given the email he and Bob Neill had received from him after Crewe & Nantwich. Eric has given me full permission to quote from the email. Here's what Mr Byrom thought, only two weeks ago...

Great result in Crewe, I picked up the vibes last Friday as Janice and I pounded the streets and council houses, Labour were in for a kicking, but it brings us renewed confidence, the press and establishment are now predicting a Tory Government, there is a buzz about our next administration and we are on the way back.

Also reflects well on the Local Government team and Eric, with good press coverage.

Doesn't sound to me like an unhappy Conservative. He goes on in the email to berate the leader of his council group for her plans not to renominate him to the Fire Authority, which would then place in jeopardy his place on the LGA Fire Committee. He pleads with Bob Neill and Eric Pickles to intervene and save his position. They, however, felt unable to do so as it is entirely down to the local group leader how she allocates jobs like this.

So Les Byrom sees both his sinecures disappearing and decides to defect on the spurious pretence of disagreeing with the Tory leadership on 42 days. How convenient for that to happen a day before the vote.

Perhaps Cllr Byrom could tell the truth and stop pretending it's about 42 days, when it so clearly is not.

PS Thank you to my correspondent who has sent me the above picture of Cllr Byrom. I assume that he will be instantly branded a 'toff' by Labour HQ and ejected from the party immediately.

UPDATE 6pm: Hmmm, Cllr Byrom has certainly built up some enemies over the years judging by the avalanche of emails which I have been sent over the last hour. Excuse me while I filter them...

UPDATE: Having been a candidate for four parliamentary elections and two EU ones, his applications to get on the candidates list after 2005, and again last year, were rejected.

UPDATE: Reaction from the Southport Visitor.

LibDem Candidate: Why I Joined the Tories

Andy Sloan was LibDem candidate in Hull East at the last election. In an article for the Yorkshire Post yesterday, he explained why he has defected to the Conservatives. It makes very unhappy reading if you are a LibDem.

Bob Spink: UKIP Are Welcome to Him

I've never met Bob Spink, but from what I know of his views and career, I doubt whether he and I would really hit it off. The kind of politician who puts on his election leaflet "What part of send them back, Mr Blair" is not someone I can relate to. When I read about that I felt he was in the wrong party. He may have many attributes but so far they have escaped my notice. His behaviour today was reprehensible and the Conservative Chief Whip, Patrick McLoughlin., did the only thing he could do - tell him to sit on it and swivel.

If Spink had had any judgement, he would have looked at and learned from what happened to Sir Patrick Cormack, who recently emerged victorious from a deselection battle. Sir Patrick handled the whole thing with skill and decorum. There were no tantrums, but he waited until his enemies struck. He flushed them out and defeated them. Spink hasn't even had the guts to face his critics. I have no idea what the allegations he makes against his constituency association amount to. No doubt they will be widely discussed and investigated, but as far as Mr Spink is concerned, the die is cast.

So what happens now? Spink has dug an even deeper hole for himself in a further statement this evening, which indicates to me that there will be no way back for him. Good. I've little doubt that Spink will stand as an Independent against whoever is chosen to succeed him. His only chance of achieving anything other than a humiliating result will be to fight under the banner of another Party. He already has a track record of defending UKIP, so I'd bet money that he'll end up with them. His defection was already rumoured a couple of years ago.

These internal party spats are always unseemly and no one ever emerges with much credit. But the boil has now been well and truly lanced and it's probably a good thing.

Former LibDem Candidate Joins Tories

Local councillor defections are never that interesting, but the defection of a former LibDem Parliamentary Candidate is. Today, Andy Sloan, who stood for the LibDems in 2005 in Hull East defected to the Tories. He's also a Hull City Councillor. His comments are interesting...

“I had once believed that the Liberal Democrat Party possessed a set of values and beliefs that were an alternative to the socialist Labour Party. I see now that this view was misplaced and that the Liberal Democrats exist for a singular purpose – namely, to maintain bits of orange on a political map, no matter what the consequence.

“The Liberal Democrat Party stands for nothing except to further its own electoral existence."

Last week's debacle seems to add weight to his accusation. I think I am right in saying that this defection brings to seven the number of former LibDem Parliamentary Candidates who have joined the Tories since the last election, with one going in the opposite direction.

Why a LibDem Defected to the Tories

Former Southwark LibDem Councillor Richard Porter explains HERE why he decided to join Cameron's Conservatives.

UPDATE: More HERE on Webcameron.

Careless Talk Costs Defections

I have another column in the Telegraph today, which you can read in full HERE. This is an excerpt...

Two years ago, Mark Oaten - then a rising star in the Liberal Democrats - told a leading Conservative that his party's generation was hungry for power and would go out and seek it. He had just published The Orange Book with his political soulmate David Laws, and was taken aback by the opprobrium from Left-of-centre Liberal Democrats. It was at that point that some of the Orange Bookers started to think long term; several found the prospect of 20 years on the Lib Dem benches a pretty soul-destroying prospect and their policy positions on many issues - tax, welfare reform and public services - were not poles apart from those adopted by liberal Conservatives.

Oaten came very close to defecting to the Conservatives in the autumn of 2005. As Lib Dem home affairs spokesman he was frustrated by the party's opposition to his tougher approach on crime, and, in particular, terrorism: but the Tories were choosing a leader and Oaten's bargaining position was weak, so he stayed put. David Cameron nearly claimed his first scalp two months into his leadership. Rumours had been swirling around Westminster of an imminent Lib Dem defection. I wrote on my blog that David Laws was about to jump ship. It was then that I received a phone call from someone close to the Cameron set who asked if I could tone it down a little as things were "at a delicate stage".

If Laws is to be believed, George Osborne's attempt to lure him across - then, or later - was less a political seduction than a "wham bam, thank you ma'am". Laws has been telling Tory MPs this week that Osborne asked abruptly, without any political foreplay, whether he wanted to defect or not. He was so taken aback that he spluttered "not".

In a GMTV interview at the weekend, Osborne confirmed that he had held discussions with Laws and was also talking to Labour MPs. The first rule of political defections is that you not only keep any discussions secret from your own side, you don't talk about them on television either. Afterwards, Osborne knew he had made a mistake, but the damage had been done.

The Tories and Lib Dems are becoming allies of convenience on issues where they have common ground. Nick Clegg, the Lib Dems Home Affairs Spokesman and leader-in-waiting, has been astonished at how similar his views are to those of David Davis, whom he had previously regarded as a hardline Right-winger. Cameron confidante Ed Vaizey has been deputed to cosy up to the Lib Dems. His recent trip to the Arctic Circle with Nick Clegg may not have resulted in a defection, but eight hours a night in an igloo can hardly have failed to bring them closer.

The Cameron inner circle ought to remember the Second World War maxim: careless Talk Costs Lives," except they should replace the "lives" with "defections".

UPDATE: More councillors defect to Tories HERE.

Is an MP About to Defect?

This particular hare has been running before and come to nothing, but I've had several people ask me today if I have heard about an imminent defection to the Conservatives. The honest answer is that I haven't, but nor would I expect to have. Defection negotiations are best conducted very much in private. The fewer people know about them the better.

I'm told that one possible defector last year was put off by the ham-fisted approach of his interlocutor, which far from being a slow, gently seduction took the form of a blunt question: "Well, are you going to defect?" Needless to say, the answer was negative. Unbelievable.

UPDATE: LibDem Voice is getting very excited about a Tory defection to the LibDems in Tunbridge Wells. No, it's not the Tory MP Greg Clark - it's a.... wait for it .... a parish councillor. See HERE.

Osborne Confirms Defection Approaches

George Osborne has given an interview to the GMTV Sunday Programme in which he talks openly about approaches he has made to LibDem AND Labour MPs, urging them to cross the floor. I'm not sure how wise this is. The David Laws incident is well known but it is the first time he has confirmed that Labour MPs have been approached. I suppose Kate Hoey and Frank Field would have been the obvious targets. Here's the extract...

Gloria del Piero:
There were rumours that you asked David Laws to join the Tories and said he could get a Shadow Cabinet post. Clear that one up for us…
George Osborne: Well it was a private conversation between the two of us and only one person went and told the press about it, I guess, because it wasn’t me, so you’d better go and get David Laws on your programme and he will tell you. Or maybe he won’t.
Gloria del Piero: What were the consequences of that conversation?
George Osborne: He’s still a Liberal Democrat MP.
Gloria del Piero: Do you wish he wasn’t?
George Osborne: We are a big tent. We welcome in people from across the political spectrum. We’ve got councillors who have switched over to us and there’s a real sense at the moment that the excitement is with us, that people are coming to join us. In my own local area people are coming to join my local party. And you know there are quite a lot of ideological soulmates out there who say ‘Well hold on, actually the Conservative party are the future and actually this lot have had their go and they’re the past.’
Gloria del Piero: So are you and your colleagues talking to other Liberal Democrats?
George Osborne: We talk to lots of people. Labour MPs are well.
Gloria del Piero: You’re talking to Labour MPs?
George Osborne: Let me just tell you, let me just tell you, I’m not sure I can promise you that on GMTV we would reveal any defections first, but I promise you I will certainly come on this programme if we get anyone defecting.
Gloria del Piero: But are you telling me that you’ve had conversations with Labour MPs
George Osborne: Well, I’ve had conversations with Labour MPs and Liberal Democrats but no-one yet has taken the bait.

So to all the Tories who are reading this, which Labour & LibDem MPs would you feel comfortable welcoming into the Conservative Party?

UPDATE FROM PA: "David Cameron today launched a bid to woo Liberal Democrat voters, telling them there is a home for them in his "modern, moderate Conservative Party". Accusing Tony Blair and Gordon Brown of causing a breakdown in trust in politics, the Tory leader called for Liberal and Conservative supporters to "rally together behind an alternative government-in-waiting". And he said the time was right for a "new Liberal-Conservative consensus" combining individual freedom and social responsibility.