Defections in Derby

8.27.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Sat 26th Aug 2006

Yesterday afternoon 37 members of the Labour Party defected to the Liberal Democrats in Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary's constituency of Derby South. The defection is over how Beckett and Labour have handled the Middle East crisis. I don't know the exact details of what happened but after dealing with defections - mass defections in Birmingham and the defection of an MP in Shrewsbury I would urge caution.

Whilst the Middle East crisis is an important issue, I would have thought most people would have already left over the War in Iraq and it surprises me that these people were still in the Labour Party. Also 37 people seems a large number of defections, and whilst I would not dream of questioning their motives it has been obviously organised to some degree.

I really hope that these defectors truly believe in Liberalism and are happy in their new home and Derby South Liberal Democrats go from strength to strength and win the Parliamentary Seat at the next General Election. Time will tell...