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Former Tory MP switches to opposition

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Published Date: 22 April 2008
THE UK Independence Party gained its first Member of Parliament today after former Tory MP Bob Spink announced he had joined its ranks.
Mr Spink was expelled from the Conservative Party last month after a bitter dispute with the local party in his Castle Point, Essex, constituency.

Today he accused the Tories of being "dishonest" with the public over its policies on Europe and said there was no need for him to fight a by-election despite his switch of parties.

He said: "I was elected as Bob Spink. I work hard for my constituents and I will continue to do so.

"I am following to the letter every word that I promised them in my manifesto and I only wish the parties were doing the same, including the Tory Party."





The full article contains 137 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 22 April 2008 9:51 AM
  • Source: Edinburgh Evening News
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Foulkes Off the CyberNat,

Edinburgh 22/04/2008 10:13:27
Everybody's abandoning the unionists now, in favour of localised nationalist parties. Repent David, Repent Gordon!
2

Stewart C.,

Stranraer 22/04/2008 11:01:53
It's time to abandon the mainstream parties as they will all follow the elite globalists' agenda of surveillance and control; they will be bought off by the banks, big pharma, the EU, the environmental nazis, etc.

This isn't the future http://www.thelabourparty.org/bin_fine_cumbria.htm

It's now and the mainstream parties are, to a greater or lesser degree, signed up to it.


3

Jim McConalogue,

Essex 22/04/2008 11:54:00
I said it at the time and I’m still saying it – if the Tories had been honest on Europe, they would have gone all out on the Lisbon Treaty debates beyond a call for a referendum whilst explaining why, they would have voted on Bill Cash’s supremacy of Parliament ‘New Clause 9’ (on which the majority of Tories abstained), they would have engaged the public with the contents of the Treaty, and they would honour a post-ratification referendum even after the European Union (Amendment) Bill goes through Parliament.

I am very conscious that similar controls by the Tory Whips have also been used in the Lords this month – meaning, there is no real intention to stop the Lisbon Treaty by the majority of Tories and the opposition has been a complete farce. Sounds like Spink knew exactly what was going on.

Since an MP must represent his or her constituents, who tend not to like total governance by Europe, Spink was bound by obligation to defect to UKIP. I must congratulate Spink on his defection from a party that has failed to mean anything. And by that, I mean what Disraeli said of Conservative Party in that it is 'a national party or it is nothing'.
4

Calum Crubag,

22/04/2008 12:14:21
Brit Nats... we all love them really.
5

Matt M,

Edinburgh 22/04/2008 12:52:07
He's left the Tory Party for an even more right wing, parochial, public service cutting party. The SNP must be raging he snubbed them.
6

John Knox furr First Meenister,

High St, Embra 22/04/2008 13:37:12
#1 Fantastic future for us all, I'm sure. It's been such a wonderful success in the Balkans. Can't wait for an administrative boundary to be drawn up the Tweed and over the moors. What a boon. How liberating. Freedom!
7

FrancesP,

22/04/2008 13:48:11
#5. Ah, that'll be the "right-wing" SNP in contrast to "socialist" New Labour, will it? You're staying impressively on-message, I'll give you that - quite an achievement when the message is so patently ludicrous. You'll have to remind me of all these "left-wing", "socialist" policies the Labour government at Westminster have been implementing, because all I can see is the most right-wing government in western Europe hiking the tax-rates of those least able to pay. Keir Hardie would have been so proud.
8

Alan B,

22/04/2008 14:00:26
What gets me is the arrogance in not calling a by election.

The jounalism is dreadful too. Why was he expelled?
9

brownlie,

22/04/2008 14:23:37
5 Matt

A wee problem with your geography lessons then?
10

John Blackley,

Florida 22/04/2008 14:46:14
Nothing much to get excited about here (unless you're a member of UKIP - in which case, break out the Sanatogen). An obscure Tory is chucked by his party after - possibly - breaking wind noisily at the local cheese and wine night and, in a snit, announces he's now a member of an even-more right-wing crowd.

MP's have been 'crossing the floor' in parliament for almost as long as there's been a parliament. (Churchill did it more than once. Quite wore out the carpet, did old Winnie.) It's never momentous and never indicative of anything except one MP's pique.
11

,

22/04/2008 15:39:14
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