Turncoat Tory causes trouble for Lib Dems

Having already defected from the Tories to Change UK, the glossy new centrist party which rapidly imploded, Sarah Wollaston last week jumped ship to the Lib Dems.

But Wollaston, who was elected as the Tory MP for Totnes in 2010, may prove to be more trouble than she’s worth.

Within days, she was accused of rank hypocrisy after it emerged she had once called for automatic by-elections for MPs who switch parties, but now refuses to face one herself. Wollaston is on the verge of upsetting her new Lib Dem colleagues, too.

For while she may be happy to switch parties to her heart’s content, her arrival has left local activists feeling a tad disgruntled — not least Caroline voaden, who had already been chosen by the local Lib Dems to stand in any forthcoming election. an understandably miffed voaden, who was elected as MEP for the region in May, gave no signs of backing down on local radio last week: ‘at some point a decision will be made about whether i fight the seat for Totnes or whether Sarah does, and that is a decision that the party will make, and it has not been made yet.’

With a potential showdown in Totnes already on the boil, might it be easier for Wollaston to simply switch to a fourth party within six months?