Will the last person to quit UKIP please remember to turn out the lights
Job done: Why I am joining the Conservative Group in the Welsh Assembly pic.twitter.com/7TFh9JD6zE
— Mark Reckless (@MarkReckless) April 6, 2017
Mark Reckless, 2nd CON MP to defect to UKIP in 2014,rejoins the blue team
Just two weeks afte UKIP’s first elected MP, Douglas Carswell, announced that he was leaving the party the second big MP defector from 2014, Mark Reckless, has announced that he’s doing the same.
Reckless had been MP for Rochester in Kent and won the by-election the following his defection. He failed, however, to retain the seat at the 2015 General Election period and last year he was elected to the Welsh Assembly a position he has held since.
Quite how this move will be welcomed by the blue team is hard to say. There was a huge amount of resentment about his actions in 2014 and it was felt that the timing and manner of his move was designed to cause the maximum of damage to Cameron’s party.
There was a huge effort by the Tories at the general election to win back the seat which day did easily.
With two major defections from UKIP in such a period the impression it’s certainly coming over other party that is going through a crisis. Ukip’s main area of electoral strength, ts MEP base at the European Parliament, is going to cease to exist in just two years time when Britain leaves the EU. The purples are also predicted to have a very tough next month’s set of local elections.
Whatever it’s current situation you cannot deny that the party has been remarkably successful in its main aim – the extraction of the UK from the EU. Since then it has been hard to see the point.
No doubt there will be some betting markets linked to UKIP put up in the next day or so.