Rogue Tories plot with Libs over Election pact

REBEL Tory MPs who were stripped of the party whip for voting against Boris Johnson’s Brexit policy are close to agreeing a nonaggression Election pact with Jo Swinson’s Liberal Democrats.

Under the plan, if the rebels are not allowed back into the party, the Liberals and the Greens would not put up a candidate against MPs Rory Stewart, Sam Gyimah, Margot James and Dominic Grieve.

In return, if they were to beat the official Tory candidates and win election to the Commons, they would agree to take a ‘soft whip’ from the Liberals, meaning they would vote with Ms Swinson’s party on selected issues.

The hope is that other Tory outcasts will join.

It is unclear what name they would stand under, although one option being considered is the ‘Liberal Conservatives’. The ‘coupon pact’ – a reference to the 1918 Tory-Liberal Coalition – is being brokered by Mr Stewart, MP for Penrith, and his constituency neighbour in Cumbria, former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron. A source said: ‘Tim and Rory are the main forces in this. There has been a lot of texting.’

Of the 21 Tory MPs who were kicked out for voting against the Prime Minister, ten intended to stand again.

The remaining 11 were already planning to stand down at the next Election.

No 10 strategists are concerned about the electoral impact on the Tories of a wider ‘coupon pact’ between disaffected Tories and the Liberals, as it would increase pressure on Boris Johnson to strike a similar deal with Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.

The Coalition Coupon was a letter sent to parliamentary candidates at the 1918 Election endorsing them as official representatives of the Coalition Government, signed by Prime Minister David Lloyd George for the Coalition Liberals and Bonar Law, the leader of the Conservative Party.

One of the rebels, Sir Nicholas Soames, said yesterday that he would continue to vote Conservative despite losing the whip. His grandfather, Sir Winston Churchill, defected to the Liberals, before returning to the Tories – declaring that he had ‘ratted and re-ratted’.

Describing Ms Swinson as a ‘ very formidable young lady’, Sir Nicholas said he would nonetheless not be switching allegiance, adding: ‘I’ve done enough ratting for one week.’