Conservative Party Split?

[Gromit]

Are we witnessing the start of the split in the Conservative Party?

The Party within a party, the EuroSkeptics are warning the Prime Minister that they could leave. Is it a real proposition? Would anyone miss them?

// David Cameron has been told in private by Tory Eurosceptics that the Conservative party will split in half after the general election if he fails to renegotiate Britain's EU membership terms to a Common Market-style trade-only deal.

In a sign of the threat facing the prime minister, the Eurosceptics have made clear that a sizeable body of MPs at all levels of the party will campaign for an EU exit vote in his planned referendum in 2017 if he sticks to his current negotiating plan. //

[anotheoldgit]

Have you a link?

[Zacs-Master]

Oh look, it's from the Grauinad
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/aug/29/conservatives-split-david-cameron-fails-renegotiate-eu-membership

[Canary42]

There's nothing new about this threat - and it usually fizzles out when it comes to the crunch.

[anotheoldgit]

Thanks for that Zacs it makes it much more clearer now.

[Zacs-Master]

See^^^^reading the G affects your ability to use grammar correctly.

[Gromit]

Perhaps it would be more palitable if I had linked to the Conservativehome.com page...

//
“Conservative MPs warned yesterday that they would refuse to campaign against Douglas Carswell as his defection to Ukip continued to send shockwaves through his former party. Tories suggested there could be a damaging split on the right of British politics after the MP for Clacton jumped ship to UKIP and triggered a by-election. Some are even urging the Conservatives not to field a candidate against their former colleague.” //

http://www.conservativehome.com/frontpage/2014/08/newslinks-for-saturday-august-30th-2014.html

[Zacs-Master]

That's a little different to the party being split in half. I'd like to know who the 'Tories' were and please note the words 'suggested' and 'could'. Hardly hard evidence is it?

[Gromit]

Zacs,
We are not going to see these awkward Tories raising their heads above the parapet. It is a threat, I am not suggesting it is definitely going to happen.

But there is a split in the Conservatives that has been festering for years. If Cameron fails to deliver the referendum, then I suggest it is a possibility more Tories will jump ship.

Do you really believe that the Eurosceptics will keep quite and behave if no referendum is forthcoming after the General Election?

[Zacs-Master]

Agreed. It just depends how many of them there are. Probably not enough to split them down the middle as the G suggests.

[mikey4444]

Chance would be a fine thing !

The Tories have been in a much worse state before. Look at the humiliation of 1997, 2001, 2005, etc, although it is nearly always Europe that get the Tory knickers in a real twist. They will recover from next years debacle and regroup. My avatar once said.....

" The Tories are like rats you see, you think you have got rid of them but they always come back !

[Obiter]

It depends how you define the word 'Tory'. To my mind the true Tories are the Eurosceptics, whilst the Europhiles are not; more like old-fashioned 19C Whigs.

[Quizmonster]

ZM, I could not provide a link yesterday, because I long since refused to start paying for access behind the pay-wall at The Times....hardly a left-leaning paper!
Accordingly, here are a couple of points from Matthew Parris's article there yesterday.
The heading was, "A Tory schism is now all but inevitable" and its sub-heading read, "Douglas Carswell's defection is part of a strategy to scupper the EU referendum and take over the Conservative party."

To me, that notion of a take-over is far from sounding like the puny little revolt that you seem to be suggesting! In addition, have you seen the poll today on voting intentions in Clacton itself? UKIP are 44% ahead of the Tories!

[Gromit]

If the poll is to be believed, UKIP will win this seat. If he does, that will encourage the other potential defectors.

Farage says he has 16 other Tories ready to jump ship. We could see 2 by-elections a month heading to the General Election. It would be highly damaging for the Conservatives to lose a string of by-elections up to next May.

We will have to wait until next month, but if Carswell is successful, I would say the split had already started.