Louise Bagshawe: An open letter to Frank Field MP, Kate Hoey MP and Gisela Stuart MP

I hope you will forgive the impertinence of a letter like this from a mere Conservative PPC. But when considering what column to write this week for this website, there was a single subject that suggested itself; to ask the three Labour MPs most respected by their opponents to consider defecting to our party.

Obviously, all of you will have been plagued with the question many times before by journalists. Political parties are by their nature big tents; every MP, even candidates, will have to swallow the odd unpalatable thing for the sake of what they believe to be the wider good, otherwise we would have 650 parties in Parliament. It is quite understandable that all of you have felt that whilst you disagreed with Labour on some issues, taken as a whole, you wished to retain party affiliation. And then there is the childish point-scoring employed when politicians, as the common term has it, “defect”. The very terminology reduces what is often a profound political journey to a cheap card trick; a score for this or that leader against his enemy. I know, from the courageous risks each of you have already taken in your political careers, that you would find this extremely distasteful. In writing this article in the form of a letter, I do not intend such point scoring. My contempt for both Quentin Davies MP and for the Labour Party on the matter of his defection came precisely because it was clear he had not made such a journey. Aside from his heartfelt Europhilia, Mr. Davies had nothing about him that would commend him to the Labour Party were he not a walking opportunity to score anti-Tory points. He has voted against gay rights, been fined for animal cruelty and is a supporter of the death penalty; as far as I know, he has not resiled from these positions. It is unclear to me what political philosophy of Mr. Davies resulted in the offer of the Labour whip. Surely being a Eurofederalist is not enough in and of itself?

In the case of each one of you, there is more for a Conservative supporter to covet than just a Labour scalp and some joshing at PMQs. I have admired you all for some time, and I am hardly the only one. This is not a line offered to make a point now. Last year, during the selection for the Battersea constituency where I finished in second place to our excellent candidate Jane Ellison, in the second round we were asked a question which came up in other selections: “Can you tell us which Labour MPs you admire and why?”

Not perhaps an obvious question, but a very good one. And members of the panel reading Conservative Home will back me up when I say that I answered “Frank Field and Kate Hoey”. On that occasion I forgot Mrs. Stuart, but the pressure was on and I was nervous. Still, the point remains that both I and plenty of other Conservatives have long admired the courage, the original thought, the libertarian defiance of authoritarian statism which each of you has practised. Mr. Field was asked to do the big job on welfare reform and then not permitted to carry his reforms through. Mrs. Hoey has been a staunch defender of civil liberties and of the countryside; I, and all other field sports supporters owe her a huge debt of gratitude. Mrs Stuart is most often in the news lately as Labour’s emissary to the committee drawing up the European Constitution, and who was a woman brave enough to blow the whistle on the power-grab despite the fact her own political career would then be kicked into touch. All three of you are known and respected as independently minded patriots.

I am sure that it is a highly developed sense of honour and ties to individuals that has kept all three of you on the Labour benches. I was, however briefly, a member of Labour myself. But I would ask you to ask yourselves, are you comfortable with a Labour Party that uses “citizens’ juries” paid £75 per person to decide on policy? Can you live with mandatory ID cards? Do you really believe that animal testing for cosmetics is fine, but hunting is not? Do you support 90 day detention without trial? And finally, can any one of you, elected with the trust of your constituents, sit by while Gordon Brown signs the European Constitution without the referendum he promised, alongside Blair, in the manifesto on which you were elected? Will you indeed stomach ceding the powers of your constituents to a centralising bureaucracy without their permission? I cannot believe it.

David Cameron is right to fight just one battle at a time. We must oppose this Constitution now, before ratification. What happens afterwards is a matter for that time. But it is the job of the Loyal Opposition to oppose the Government where it is wrong; and as you all know, on this matter of supreme importance it is horribly wrong. Were you to join us now, nothing could make the point more clearly. I do not concede that Brown, like Blair before him, cannot be made to give us a referendum. In this vitally important matter each one of you can help. You are, and have been for some years, respected and longed-for by Conservatives, not for cheap point scoring but because we believe your values align with ours and your courage would be an ornament to our party. I do appeal to you to think about it. Mr. Brown has placed us on a watershed. He is prepared to spin to Parliament that this treaty and the Constitution are different. All of you know better. I implore you to consider your positions and to consider joining the party that can put a stop to this.

Yours sincerely,

Conservative PPC for Corby and East Northamptonshire

Comments

[davidwalker_11@hotmail.com]

I can't quite believe a PPC would write something so puerile. I think the Editor should reconsider his use of Lousise's "talent".

[Tony Makara]

Simon R, perhaps you are forgetting how 'Conviction Claire' was completely opposed to the Iraq war but voted for war to preserve her cabinet position, then after being dumped by Blair she came out attacking the war. Such hypocracy is the sort of thing that turns people off politics. You might also want to read up on the way that Claire Short wormed her way up the Labour ranks via marriage, money etc.

[Graeme Archer]

Has anyone ever listened to a word uttered by Frank Field and not found their head nodding in agreement with his clear-sighted common-sense? The other day this website ran some (in my view, silly) article about how great Tony Benn's supposed to be, because he agrees with us about the Constitution. He remains an unreconstructed, failed socialist, yet this site posted comment after comment from readers about how marvellous they find Benn. Yet when Louise writes an honest letter to three principled Labour MPs, and by principled I mean those who have put their views before their political careers (unlike the egregious Benn), she receives a bit of a tongue-lashing! I realise the posters of the comments are not the same people, I'd just like to make the point that the issue of changing party is not as black/white as some would believe (do I have to invoke Churchill?).

I can't actually beleive that Kate Hoey isn't an old-fashioned Tory; and Frank Field is clearly an intellectual who places humanity before the machine in his politics (which is my working definition of liberal-Tory). All I know of Ms Stuart has been her doughty refusal to stop saying that which she knows is the truth in the face of opposition from her party (can you imagine how she's being "leant on" to shut up by the Labour Whips?). I'd be proud if Frank Field joined us.

[Editor]

No, Graeme. This website did not run an article about "how great Tony Benn's supposed to be". It simply welcomed his understanding of democracy in the light of the EU. In fact, my post specifically noted his overall undesirable socialism. Click here for those who wish to see the original post.

This is the third time in two weeks you have misrepresented me.

:-(

[Julian Melford]

All three Labourites stand out because they actually believe in something.

For too much of the past 17 years, Conservative glitterati have taken the line of least resistance in appeasing political correctness. Even today people aren't sure exactly what Cameronite Conservatism is about.

That is one reason why the traditional Party of Government has languished as the party in opposition at Westminster. Contrast this with the more traditional approach that has led to being the largest party in local government....

[Moral minority]

Has Ms Bagshawe no sense of irony? Here we have a Tory candidate, who defected to New Labour and back again, inviting her former colleagues to defect! The three Labour MP "recipients" have demonstrated that they have a record of integrity - staying loyal to their Party whilst speaking out on vital issues.

It is unlikely that they will have read Ms Bagshawe's open letter. If by chance they have, they will probably have laughed at her sheer nerve and/or been appalled at being patronised by a self-important Tory who has not even contested a Parliamentary election.

[Gareth]

What a very, very foolish article. No doubt because you have only been involved in tory politics for the best part of 20 minutes, you think it appropriate to sing the praises of people who some of your fellow PPC's will be fighting at the next election.

Gisella Stuart is a lousy MP. Some of us are working hard to get her replaced by an excellent Conservative alternative. We don't need silly noises-off from political amateurs like you.

[Joe James Broughton]

I quite like those 3, and Gwyneth Dunwoody, but I don't think they will defect. Apart from Gisela Stuart, they are probably right wing old Labour, which is a tradition within their party anyway.

We should fight seats, with our existing candidates already in place. Afterall, they have been through their selections.
[We seem to have an excellent candidate, Deirdre Alden in Birmingham Edgbaston].

If anyone defects to the Conservatives, it should be somewhere else.

It's a personal matter anyway. People will and should decide themselves on their party. It's a serious matter, and not something to manipulate.