UKIP no longer Peerless

Tabman — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 10:47:42 +0000

It seems to be the season for defections. After Peter's story about a councillor joining the Lib Dems we get news that two Tory peers have defected to UKIP:

Two Tory peers have joined the UK Independence Party in protest at the Conservatives' lack of a "sufficiently Eurosceptic policy".
Lord Pearson of Rannoch, who switched with Lord Willoughby de Broke, said UKIP was the "only party telling the truth" about Europe.

He also said they had given up hope that the Tories would "toughen up on immigration, tax, education and so on".

The defections give UKIP its first Westminster representation.

Lord Pearson described the Conservative leadership of David Cameron as "going in the wrong direction".

Presumably the Cameroonies will wheel this out as further evidence that "the party has changed". However, given this is before Dave has even begun to put actual policies on the table, who's to say what future departures might occur?

One thing's for certain though. I'm sure Iain Dale won't be using the words "turmoil, crisis, or meltdown" in conjunction with this news!