6. Mark Reckless And Others Defected To UKIP Over The EU... Yet Cameron Wants To Paint The Conservatives As The Party Who Can Deal With The European Question
Since the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) was founded in 1993, there have been numerous defections from the Conservatives - including Roger Knapman, Nevil Hamilton and Piers Merchant. Yet there were two particularly high-profile and damaging defections in 2014 that could really hurt Cameron in this campaign. First of all, Tory MP for Clacton, Douglas Carswell, defected in August 2014 and won the resultant by-election - as did Mark Reckless when he made the move just a month later, meaning the Conservatives lost two of their seats. Reckless in particular highlighted Cameron's lack of clarity over Britain's future in Europe as his reason for moving to UKIP - who have promised an in-out referendum within months if they were to win the election - and this is a blow to the PM. Cameron is determined to wrestle back some of the political ground gathered by UKIP on the European question, but if he can't even convince his own party members that he has it under control, how can he even begin to hope to be able to convince the electorate?
NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.
