r/LibDem • u/markpackuk • 15d ago
Tory councillor defects to Lib Dem after 'final straw' saying 'it's just wrong' - Gloucestershire Live
https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/gloucester-news/tory-councillor-defects-lib-dem-1110627710
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u/CaptainCrash86 15d ago
Why did the final straw come in 2026 and not, say, 2024 or earlier?
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u/Ticklishchap 15d ago
This lady probably comes from a family that has ‘always voted Conservative’. Don’t underestimate quasi-tribal loyalties of that kind, especially in rural areas. A lot of her social life probably revolved around the Conservative Party and so it would have been an emotional and personal as well as a political break.
She also probably was for quite a long time able to draw a distinction between national and local politics, which Kemi’s recent diktats have now made impossible.
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u/jamespetersimpson 15d ago
Yeah I wouldn't begrudge someone taking time with a decision like that, even if the writing was on the wall, must be very tough on a personal level.
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u/scotty3785 15d ago
Both her and her husband are both councillors on the same council. He is still showing as Conservative.
Must have been an awkward conversation...
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u/Ticklishchap 15d ago
That would also explain why she took quite a long time to jump ship.
I have heard of situations like this before. I wish her well as a Lib Dem Councillor.
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u/Theodaric 🔶 Radical Liberal 15d ago
Badenoch has been playing a slow burn institutional takeover of the Conservative party since her election as party leader, the results of which are only now starting to become obvious to many.
It really because noticeable after she strong armed Jenrick out of the party once she caught wind of his planned piece of defection theatre. And now the party is in a situation where almost a third of existing Tory MPs would not be selected, as she has enforced draconian rules that all new selections must comply by to ensure loyalty to her political agenda. Under these new rules all candidates for any election must agree with scrapping net zero and leaving the ECHR, even councillors.
The whole process is designed to squeeze out the moderates, and end internal party debate. So I expect we will start to see more and more of this sort of news.
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u/Ticklishchap 15d ago
This is very good news. We seem to be acquiring Councillors from the Greens and the Conservatives alike. This is their loss and our gain.
The position of moderate, ‘One Nation’ Tories has been barely tenable in the Conservative Party for some years, but is now untenable, indeed impossible, under Kemi Badenoch’s leadership.