Tory MP loses whip after row with local party
A Conservative MP has lost the party whip after accusing the leadership of failing to root out corruption in his local party.
Bob Spink, MP for Castle Point in Essex, interrupted the Commons debate to announce he would fight the next election as an independent Conservative.
But it has been claimed his unusual Commons intervention was an attempt to wrong-foot the leadership, who had withdrawn the whip from him hours before.
Making a point of order, Mr Spink said he had “resigned the Conservative party whip because the Conservative party has failed to deal with serious criminal and other irregularities in my constituency”.
The Conservative party said the whip had already been withdrawn from the Castle Point MP after he emailed chief whip Patrick McLoughlin on Tuesday night threatening to resign.
Mr McLoughlin replied: “As a matter of good party discipline I cannot have MPs making threats to resign the whip at a time of their own choosing, if the demands of the party are not met.
“I must therefore treat your resignation as taking immediate effect”.
However, Mr Spink has accused the Conservative party of “brass-necked dishonesty” in claiming it withdrew the whip from him.
He said the party had been attempting to force him to delay his resignation until after the spring conference or change his mind and had been in discussions with him until the morning of the Budget.
Mr Spink faced a battle over reselection, with the Castle Point Conservative association expected to meet next week in a third attempt to deselect him.
The MP is understood to have fallen out with key members in his local association and criticised the central party for failing to sort out “breaches of its rules and electoral irregularities”.
Mr McLoughlin said the party “entirely rejected” this allegation.
A Conservative Party Board investigation was launched into the Castle Point Conservative association last year and failed to find evidence that would justify taking away its rights to select the local MP.
It is reported locally that Mr Spink had fallen out with local councillor Bill Sharp after being romantically linked to his partner Gail Boland, a former councillor.
He has also faced criticism for employing members of his family, including his ex-wife Janet who lives 150 miles away from his constituency, and Ms Boland’s daughter to work in his office at public expense.
He is the fourth MP lost by the Conservatives in less than a year.
In January, Derek Conway, MP for Sidcup and Old Bexley, had the whip withdrawn after a row over expenses, and Andrew Pelling, MP for Croydon, lost the whip in September after he was arrested on suspicion of assaulting his wife.
Quentin Davies, MP for Grantham and Stamford, defected to Labour shortly after Gordon Brown took office.
