Quote:
Originally Posted by Vortex
I'm glad you're as thrilled as a prep school boy who's got his first fifty, but the long term omens are not good. There have been maverick MPs in the past who have defected to lost causes before, one being John Stonehouse who became an English National Party MP in the 1970s. He was kicked out by a massive majority at the next election.....
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You have not mentioned the General Election results at Plymouth-Devonport in the 1983 and 1987.
Lord David Owen (then David Owen MP) quit the Labour Party to form the rival SDP political party in 1981. He stood as an SDP candidate in the seat he held - Plymouth-Devonport - at the 1983 General Election and retained the seat despite a strong campaign by the party he left (Labour) to try to get him out.
Four years later - in 1987 - he held Plymouth-Devonport again. He never lost that seat and retired as its MP before the 1992 General Election.
And you have also failed to mention the best example in modern politics of someone quitting one of the two big parties and going on to stand as a candidate for a much smaller party and win: George Galloway MP.
For those readers who do not know it - Mr. Galloway left the Labour Party during the last Parliament. He sat as an independent for a short time and then joined the Respect Party. He stood as a Respect candidate at Bethnal Green at the last General Election and defeated the sitting Labour MP.
Like Mr. Galloway, Mr. Spink also sat as an independent for a short time before joining a smaller party. There is already significant support for UKIP in Mr. Spink's Castle Point constituency and the seat is overwhelmingly eurosceptic. When George Galloway stood at Bethnal Green at the last General Election there was no previous support for his Respect Party (they had never contested the seat before) - but he still won the constituency.
At Castle Point, Mr. Spink joins party - UKIP - which already has thousands of local people behind it.
So there you have it - two examples of two people who quit one of the big parties and who won/retained seats in the General Elections which followed.
You are not a supporter of UKIP, are you Vortex? If you are not you will not be pleased that the party now has its own member of Parliament.