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Originally Posted by TomPhil
Unfortunately I doubt it. Getting an MP to leave the safety of one of the big parties to join is an entirely different thing to getting an independent to accept the support of a party.
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I broadly agree with you but there is always the slim possibility of someone retiring at the next election (or suffering from boundary changes or whatever) who has been too much of a rebel to have any hope of a peerage thinking what the heck, let's just go and do it - 10p tax, 42 days, ID cards, EU constitution etc being too much for their conscience. Gwyneth Dunwoody, for example, prior to her recent and very regrettable death was more than willing to lose the Labour whip over IIRC the reorganisation of local government in Cheshire despite her lifelong association with Labour.