Reckless M P Quits To Join Ukip

[Jomlett]

BBC News - MP quits Conservatives for UKIP http://bbc.in/1mB0oU6

[Svejk]

where's Ludwig?

[wolf63]

Good title to your post

[Gromit]

Interesting. This has clearly been planned to boost UKIP and embarrass the Tories before their conference.

This will trigger another bye election. He has a 10,000 majority for the Conservatives, but a lot depends on the Clacton result in a coyple of weeks time.

[Jomlett]

From the Torygraph..Earlier this month it emerged that a polling company had been making calls in Mr Reckless's constituency.

They asked people if they would be more likely to vote for Mr Reckless, a Eurosceptic MP and friend of Mr Carswell, if he were a member of Ukip.
Mr Reckless's announcement came after it emerged that a number of Tory MPs have been approached to defect to Ukip by a senior Ukip official working in the office of a member of the Lords.

Matthew Richardson, a barrister and Ukip's legal officer, has approached a series of Tory backbenchers on the terrace at the Palace of Westminster.
He is thought to have triggered panic in Tory ranks after boasting to targets of the number of Conservative MPs he had lined up to follow Douglas Carswell, the MP for Clacton, in quitting.

[Hypognosis]

I see no reason for Tory panic.

Someone whom the rest of the country has barely heard of has switched allegience, grumbling about how their previous party treated them.

He would probably be a "back bencher for life", with the Tories. He stands a chance of a more senior position within a UKIP parliamentary opposition.

So he's just another self-serving MP with ambitions hitherto frustrated.

Unless the Tories had something special in mind for him (in the Cabinet) then I don't see why they should shed any tears or agonise over this.
Disloyal; easily bribed away; best got rid of, no?

[Farriercm]

Who will be the next MP to quit the Tories and join UKIP. ???

[janbee]

I'm waiting for the next name to jump ship, from any of the other parties. There's bound to be more.

[Svejk]

do you like UKIP, farrier?

[factor-fiction]

I think farrier just dislikes the Tories, svejk

[Svejk]

I think he loves them really. ;)

[Slapshot]

I think the whole political environment is changing from what we've come to expect in the last 60 years, more federalism, more interest in keeping the EU at arms length and more nationalism not just in Scotland

[maggiebee]

Never heard of the man, but suppose there's no good reason why I should have. Will he be a big loss to the Tories?

[Jomlett]

I think the tories gave up on him 4 years ago, after he was found in the house too drunk to vote!

"He denied claims that he fell asleep on the terrace or got a taxi back to his constituency."

He added: "I remember someone asking me to vote and not thinking it was appropriate, given how I was at the time.

"If I was in the sort of situation generally where I thought I was drunk I tend to go home.

"Westminster is a very special situation and all I can say... is given this very embarrassing experience I don't intend to drink at Westminster again."

[agchristie]

No big loss Maggiebee, I think Hypognosis summed it up well. Reckless, was never going to pull up any trees and was quite controversial at times.

[Farriercm]

Think the Tories will perform better after next May, they always have
performed much better in Opposition.

[lindapalmara]

Look out for the Labour defectors. UKIP seem to be going down well in Doncaster. After the damp squid of a Labour conference and the figures not adding up I think they are getting wise. I went back to my roots in a Northern town in Lancashire in May after the Euro elections and everyone i spoke to who I would have expected to vote Labour had voted UKIP. Mind you it didn't help when their Labour MP went to jail after the expenses scandal!!!

[Orderlimit]

"Mind you it didn't help when their Labour MP went to jail after the expenses scandal!" They aint going to have many people left at this rate.

[youngmafbog]

Most parties perform better in opposition, you do t have to deliver just complain!

[jourdain2]

I think slapshot's right. People have become used to having a lot of choice, from the ways in which they can communicate to the number of TV channels they can choose. That they are more likely to move away from a limited political choice follows from this shift.

[Farriercm]

Starting to get a little concerned about these Con MPs jumping ship,
Will they be having a private In or Out Referendum amongst their own MPs?