It is always disappointing when anyone decides to leave the Conservative Party, all the more so when it is a Conservative Member of Parliament. MP’s of various parties have changed parties for different reasons over the years. Very often they have chosen to remain in Parliament representing their new Party without asking the electorate whether they agreed. The last two MP’s who have decided for reasons of their own to leave the Conservative Party and join UKIP have both done the honourable thing and resigned their seats and put their new allegiance to the test in a by-election. I suspect that as in Clacton a few weeks ago the question that the voters in Rochester and Strood will be asking themselves is should an MP be penalised for doing the honourable thing and saying the people who elected him ‘ Look, I have changed parties do you still want me to represent you for the rest of this Parliament?’
That is a very different question to the one which people will be asking themselves at next year’s general election which will be Do we want a Labour Government under Ed Miliband or a Conservative one under David Cameron?