Tory MP defects to Labour

matty · June 26, 2007

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/stor...2111920,00.html

A Conservative MP has defected to Labour on the eve of Gordon Brown taking over as prime minister.

Quentin Davies' shock switch of sides will come as a body blow to Tory leader David Cameron.

The MP for Grantham & Stamford declared that under Mr Cameron the party "appears to me to have ceased collectively to believe in anything or to stand for anything".

He complained Mr Cameron's "sense of mission" amounted to no more than a "PR agenda".

Mr Davies, a former shadow Northern Ireland secretary, follows in the footsteps of previous Tory defectors Alan Howarth and Shaun Woodward.

However, the timing of his defection suggests a major behind-the-scenes wooing from the incoming premier's team.

Mr Davies made public his letter of resignation to his ex-party leader, which stated: "Under your leadership the Conservative party appears to me to have ceased collectively to believe in anything, or to stand for anything.

"It has no bedrock. It exists on shifting sands. A sense of mission has been replaced by a PR agenda."

An MP since 1987, Mr Davies was a relative rarity in being a pro-EU Tory.

He has had a variety of select committee posts, including the Treasury committee and the international development committee.

As well as the Northern Ireland role, he was also briefly defence spokesman.

While there was no immediate response from the Tories, the Labour paymaster general, Dawn Primarolo, said: "Quentin is a man of great integrity and principle, hugely popular in parliament and a very effective performer.

She told Sky News: "He has taken this incredibly difficult decision because he recognises in Gordon Brown a principled stand in taking the country in the right direction."

In Mr Davies's resignation letter, he says Gordon Brown has a "towering record" - which he contrasts unflatteringly with Mr Cameron's.

In his letter to the Tory leader, he writes: "Believe it or not, I have no personal animus against you. You have always been perfectly courteous in our dealings. You are intelligent and charming.

"As you know, however, I never supported you for the leadership of the party - even when, after my preferred candidate, Ken Clarke, had been defeated in the first round, it was blindingly obvious that you were going to win.

"Nor, for the same reasons, have I ever sought office in your shadow administration.

"Although you have many positive qualities you have three, superficiality, unreliability and an apparent lack of any clear convictions, which in my view ought to exclude you from the position of national leadership to which you aspire and which it is the presumed purpose of the Conservative party to achieve.

"Believing that as I do, I clearly cannot honestly remain in the party. I do not intend to leave public life.

"On the contrary I am looking forward to joining another party with which I have found increasingly I am naturally in agreement and which has just acquired a leader I have always greatly admired, who I believe is entirely straightforward, and who has a towering record, and a clear vision for the future of our country which I fully share.

"Because my constituents, to whose interests of course I remain devoted, are entitled to know the full background, I am releasing this letter to the press."

Mr Davies told the Press Association: "I have taken this decision simply because I believe that Gordon Brown is taking this country in the right direction.

"The Conservatives are either wrong - on the NHS, on nuclear power, on Europe, on many things - or they simply do not know what they want or what they believe.

"For the record, I have had no discussion concerning - nor will I seek - a government post in the upcoming reshuffle.

"I will consider my future as an MP before the next election, but in the meantime, I will continue to represent the constituents of Grantham and Stamford in the way I have done from the opposition benches, always seeking to put their interests and the national interests before any narrow partisan considerations."

Des · June 26, 2007

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