How she flirted with the SDP

ANNA Soubry last night admitted she had quit the Conservative Party in the 1980s at the height of Margaret Thatcher’s reign.

Miss Soubry was named as one of eight young Tories who wrote to The Times in 1981 announcing that they were defecting to the Social Democratic Party formed by a breakaway group of Labour politicians.

In the statement, the group said the decision was ‘not one of sudden impulse [but] followed an exhaustive analysis of the options available within the Conservative Party’.

Miss Soubry last night denied joining the SDP, saying others ‘added my name’, but admitted quitting the Tory Party. She said other Tories including Chris Grayling, Andrew Lansley and Greg Clark did join the SDP. It came after she claimed Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg were ‘not proper Conservatives’.