Political defections - part one

4.22.20pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 11th Jul 2006

This is the first of a two-part entry on defections, don't worry I have not jumped ship, but two Councillors in Walsall have from Conservative to Labour. Since the General Election I know three Councillors that have left the Liberal Democrats to either sit as an Independent or a Conservative and another that started his own Group and took six other Councillors with him!

Defections are very odd things, certainly for elected types, in the last few years of the Major Government a number of MPs defected and I suspect hundreds of Councillors have over the last decade. I suspect it is an incredible difficult, and sometimes very brave, thing to do, especially due to the relationships that get built up over time.

Firstly lets get one thing straight in the UK we still legally elected individuals and not political parties, although in practice we mostly vote on party lines - so there is no compulsion to resign and fight a by-election. Although a party will often call for a by-election when they lose a Councillor/MP they are often very quiet when they gain a Councillor/MP. I suspect the most honorable thing is for that individual to resign and fight a by-election, however not all defectors are honorable of course, one of the Walsall Two was elected in May and must have had doubts then, too often people get re-elected and then defect - a more famous case would be Paul Marsden (former MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham), did he think about switching before the 2001 General Election? I suspect so.

Some defections are about policy and I guess those that defect because of policy are the most honorable - how many times have we heard the phrase "I have not changed, the Party has" and this is true for New Labour and even the Conservatives, less so the Liberal Democrats but it is still a fairly different party from the one I joined in 1992 in terms of policy. Other defections occur due to personality clashes, I would be very wary of taking these defectors, if you can defect once you can certainly do it a second time (as some have).

So where am I going with this? To be honest I am not sure, I am very split on defections - some are justified and some are not. The Councillors I know that have defected are all for different reasons, I still speak to them all, just because they are in different party doesn't change our shared history or the fact I like them as individuals, I tend not to discuss too much 'party' stuff with them but they understand that.

All I would say in conclusion of part one, is politics over the last few years has been quite fluid and I expect it will remain so for a while, however anyone thinking of changing parties (and I know people from all parties read this) is they should think long and hard about it and the party taking them should too - the Liberal Democrats got very burnt over Paul Marsden.

I will be writing more on defections later in the week, in fact I will be bringing news of one! Any comments giving me your view would be very gratefully received. I have added a poll on if elected defectors should resign there seats or not, let me know you view by voting in it.