Defections Boost Conservatives

Conservatives are celebrating two key defections today.

The first is a former Labour Parliamentary candidate and Councillor. Cllr Marc Bayliss stood for Labour in the 2005 General Election in Wyre Forest and is a sitting Councillor on Worcester City Council. He left the Labour group in January to sit as an Independent but has now decided to join the Conservative Group.

The second defection is of a Danish MEP who has left the (UKIP aligned) Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group and has joined the European Conservative and Reformists Group, of which the British Conservatives are the largest element. Anna Rosbach MEP has left the Danish People’s Party and will sit as an Independent Dane within the ECR Group. There have been the usual knee jerk Labour smears against Ms Rosbach who has chosen to leave the Danish Party due to her disagreement with some of their policies.

She becomes the first Dane in the ECR Group which further strengthens the new Group’s credibility within the European Parliament where it is already the fourth biggest group with 55 MEPs.

While in Opposition the Conservatives became used to a steady stream of Councillors defecting to the party but since taking office last May there has been some movement away. It will be very welcome in Conservative Campaign Headquarters to see that there are still some elected members of other parties who wish to make the wise decision to join the party.