Tomorrow's Mail on Sunday has the story on Helen Grant, Ann Widdecombe's successor. More soon.
10.45pm: The MoS story is now online: "Mrs Grant carried on supporting Labour by letting the Party use her offices as a telephone canvassing centre in the approach to the 2005 General Election... Labour sources confirmed that Mrs Grant joined the Labour Party in Reigate in July 2004 before leaving without explanation in February 2006. In previous interviews she has said she was only involved with Labour for "for five minutes"."
1.45am, 27/1: Iain Dale has some good advice for Helen Grant:
"In the MoS story, Helen Grant seeks to play down her Labour activism, saying that she was only in the party for "about five minutes". There are some further somewhat unconvincing lines too. What she should have done was to take the story head on and be quite up front about why she left Labour and became impressed by David Cameron. A passionate defence of why she's a Conservative would be far more likely to convince Kent Tories of her worth. The weak lines fed out by CCHQ on her behalf to the MoS have done her a disservice... Helen Grant now has an early opportunity to prove her Widdecombe-esque qualities and sock it to those in politics and the media who are quite clearly seeking to undermine her."
5pm: This is the full response of Helen Grant to the MoS story as sent to me verbatim by CCHQ:
""I have never been a member of the Croydon Labour party. I was a member of the Reigate & Banstead branch from mid 2004. I never attended any of their meetings, made no donations and did no canvassing or campaigning work for them at all. I have never denied my association with the Labour party and talked of it in a newspaper interview published in the summer of 2006.
"I was approached by Croydon Labour party and I did consider transferring membership to them but I never received any response. They also approached me about using my office telephones and I believe 2 people came in once but never returned.
"I was seduced by Labour for about 5 minutes but quickly realised what a complete shower they really were. People from poor or minority ethnic backgrounds often unthinkingly consider Labour their party but during my brief flirtation with the Labour party I found them arrogant, complacent and un-inclusive.
"When David Cameron became leader of the Conservatives in December 2005 I was completely inspired by his vision of inclusiveness, opportunity and trust in people. This led to me join the Conservatives in January 2006, having already resigned from the Labour party.
"The only party I have only ever voted for is the Conservatives."
Following a further question this was added, from Helen:
"At the request of Toni Letts, a Labour councillor in Croydon, I considered standing as a Labour council candidate for Croydon. I was ineligible to stand for council in Croydon and did not pursue this."
And we included this party spokesman comment:
"Helen is another person who has listened to David Cameron and decided to get involved with the Conservative party because of his positive vision for the counrty."
