Tory rebel defects to Lib Dems as party aims to win 100 seats

THE OLD DARK HOUSE ’Tis a terrible story Sir! It is said all the folks who lived there met their doom and were forced to wander the country screaming of their fate!

THE Liberal Democrats claimed their latest MP last night following the defection of Sam Gyimah, the former Universities Minister, from the Conservatives.

Mr Gyimah was one of the 21 Tories who had the party whip removed for voting against the Government to block a No Deal Brexit a fortnight ago.

It caps a whirlwind year for the maverick backbencher, who resigned from the Government last November and stood in the Conservative leadership battle in July. He was the only leadership candidate advocating a second referendum and withdrew after a mere eight days in the race.

In an interview with the Observer, Mr Gyimah said: ‘I am an outcast in the Conservative Party. But that’s Brexit. It has divided families. The country is divided. This is a huge fault line.

‘ It feels to me that there is a scorched earth approach to delivering Brexit by October 31 at the risk of our institutions, at the risk of our democracy, at the risk of our economy. That should not be allowed to happen. The issue for me is not just Brexit. It is beyond Brexit – how you conduct politics and the veering towards populism and English nationalism.’

Mr Gyimah is a former Parliamentary Private Secretary to David Cameron and has served as an MP since 2010.

His defection takes the number of MPs sitting on the Lib Dem benches to 18, up from 12 after the 2017 Election. A Downing Street source said: ‘This just shows why Boris Johnson was right to take the Tory whip away from this lot.’

Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson believes that she can win 100 seats at the next Election, insiders have said.

The party – which is gathering in Bournemouth this weekend for its annual conference – has enjoyed a surge in support from Remainbacking Tory voters in the wake of Boris Johnson’s support for a NoDeal Brexit.

It is now at more than 20 per cent in some opinion polls.

A source said: ‘Jo’s gang are getting very excited, talking about 100 seats. But that would mean taking some Tory seats with 20,000-vote majorities. Jo genuinely thinks she can become Prime Minister, but most of us just laughed.’

The news came as Ms Swinson moved to entrench the party’s proRemain credentials by saying that she supported a new policy of scrapping Brexit without another referendum by revoking Article 50 – the formal process to leave the EU.

Arguing that the party’s antiBrexit message should be unequivocal in an Election campaign, she said: ‘The Liberal Democrats are crystal- clear. We want to stop Brexit... if a Liberal Democrat majority government is elected, then we should revoke Article 50 and I think it’s about being straightf orward and honest with t he British public about that.’

Until now, the party’s policy on Brexit has been to campaign for another referendum in which it would back Remain.