AND THEN THERE WERE FIVE...
Reckless quits Ukip to join Tories in Welsh Assembly
MARK RECKLESS has given a damning verdict on the future of Ukip as he revealed why he made the decision to sit with the Welsh Conservatives in the Assembly.
Yesterday afternoon, after almost 24 hours of speculation, the former Conservative MP who defected to Ukip in 2014 announced that he was abandoning the party.
His decision comes less than a year after being elected as Ukip regional list member in the Senedd elections last May.
“We achieved our ambition – so for Ukip it was job done,” Mr Reckless said.
Defending himself against demands from Ukip and its party leader, Neil Hamilton, that he should stand down, Mr Reckless said that the party was a spent force and is losing support to Theresa May’s Conservatives.
He said: “Many of the people who voted Ukip in South East Wales last year are going to vote for the Conservatives – they are the party that are delivering Brexit.
“I think if you were to re-run that election again you would see a totally different outcome, with two Conservatives elected and just one Ukip member from south-east Wales.
“People are, like me, leaving Ukip and coming over to the Conservatives now we have achieved what we wanted, which was a successful referendum to leave the EU.”
His views mirror his fellow Tory-Ukip defector, Douglas Carswell, who has employed Mr Reckless as a researcher and was Ukip’s only MP until he announced he was leaving the party nine days ago.
But unlike Mr Carswell, who will sit as an independent MP in Westminster, Mr Reckless has joined the Welsh Conservative group in Cardiff Bay, but has not rejoined the party.
Defending his decision not to resign – which would see the next Ukip member on the regional list take his place in the Assembly – Mr Reckless said he would “love to hold a by-election as I did previously”, referring to his earlier defection from the Conservatives to Ukip.
He said: “Unfortunately, the proportional representation system we have in Wales doesn’t allow that.”
His dramatic defection allows Andrew RT Davies’ party to claim it is the second largest in the Senedd.
While the Assembly has no formal position of “leader of the opposition” it will increase the Welsh Conservatives’ influence in the chamber and see them given more of an opportunity to shape its business.
Mr Reckless says he made his decision to defect so that Wales could have “the opposition it deserves”.
He said the country had been failed for too long by a Labour government propped up by Plaid Cymru, and that only the Conservatives could force the Welsh Government to listen.
“In the Welsh Assembly we have Plaid masquerading as an opposition and propping up a Labour government,” he said. “I’m able to make the Conservatives the second-largest party and the opposition – and that is what Wales needs now more than ever.
“It doesn’t need Labour and Plaid working hand in hand and issuing joint statements, it needs an opposition who’ll stand up for Wales.
“You’ve seen Welsh Labour – with the support of Plaid – acting as if Wales voted to Remain in the referendum.
“Well, we need an opposition who’ll stand up for people who voted to leave and work with Theresa May and the UK government to get the best deal for Wales.”
The Assembly’s website, as of last night, lists Mr Reckless as one of three independents along with former Ukip AM Nathan Gill and former Plaid AM Dafydd Elis-Thomas. It shows the Welsh Conservatives as having 11 AMs and Plaid as also having 11 AMs, although they lose the vote of Presiding Officer Elin Jones.
But letters exchanged betweeen Welsh Tory leader Andrew RT Davies and Presiding Officer Elin Jones show that Ms Jones has said she will allow Mr Reckless to join the Conservative Assembly group without being a member of the party.
Mr Reckless originally joined Ukip in 2014 and held a by-election in his Rochester and Strood seat, which he won, only to lose it again when he was voted out of the Commons in the 2015 general election.
Mr Reckless said he had not applied to rejoin the Conservative Party, nor had he “asked for anything at the UK level at all”.
He said: “I think there are still some sore wounds and people who feel that I’ve stood against the party in previous times and it’s not for me to waltz back into the party with any sense of entitlement.
“I need to knuckle down and support Andrew RT Davies. “I’m delighted I’ve made the Conservatives the official opposition in Wales and we want to support Theresa May and the UK government with what they’re doing.”
Mr Reckless added that his new colleagues in the Tory group had reacted positively to his decision, and said he would be “delighted to pitch in any way I can” in order to help the party do well in next month’s local elections in Wales.
Welsh Conservative Leader Andrew RT Davies welcomed Mr Reckless saying he had “proven himself to be a hard-working and dedicated AM who has been an effective representative for the South East Wales region”.
“He will now be able to continue this work as part of a strong and united team which will be the official opposition in the assembly,” he added.
Ukip described the move as “disappointing” and called on him to stand down from the assembly.
Party chairman Paul Oakden said that as he was elected through the party list system – which meant voters were voting for the party rather than individual candidates – he should give up his seat for a Ukip candidate.