By SIMON WALTERS AND BRENDAN CARLIN David Cameron faced a revolt from rebel Tory MPs last night over claims that he is secretly backing so-called ‘purple plotters’ who want a merger with the Liberal Democrats. Leading Conservative MP Mark Pritchard challenged the Prime Minister to make it clear that he will not allow Tory ‘zealots’ to form a new ‘Frankenstein’ party with Nick Clegg’s Lib Dems at any time, locally or nationally. Unless the plan is stopped in its tracks, the Tory faithful could refuse to campaign for the party in future elections, warned Mr Pritchard, secretary of the influential backbench Conservative 1922 Committee. Double act: Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy, Nick Clegg His threat comes after a growing number of senior Tories, including former Prime Minister Sir John Major, have promoted the idea of maintaining the Tory-Lib Dem alliance after the next Election. Cabinet Ministers close to Mr Cameron such as Oliver Letwin, Francis Maude and Michael Gove are known to be sympathetic to a long-term deal. Mr Cameron has refused to rule out a formal election pact with the Lib Dems, merely saying it is ‘unlikely’. But with Mr Clegg’s ratings at rock bottom after his U-turn on university tuition fees and gaffes by Lib Dem Ministers, many pundits believe some kind of merger with the Tories is the only way to save them from electoral oblivion. Mr Pritchard and fellow Thatcherite MPs fear it is part of a secret agenda by Mr Cameron’s inner circle of modernising ‘Cameroons’ to kill off traditional Tory policies for good. Sir John Major said the Lib Dem-Conservative coalition could turn into a mini-realignment of politics and should continue after the next election In an article for today’s Mail on Sunday, Mr Pritchard blames a group of ‘purple plotters – those trying to permanently blend the traditional blue and yellow colours of each party with a dash of red for the sizeable Lib Dem Left’. ‘Fundamentalists among them are trying to supplant the heart and soul of the Conservative Party itself,’ he writes. As the Lib Dems forced the Coalition to lurch to the Left, voters would demand an end to ‘gooey dumbed-down consensus’ at the next Election, says Mr Pritchard. ‘Hopefully this change will come in the form of a distinct and self-confident Conservative Party – not a 2015 Frankenstein.’ If Tory activists discovered an ‘electoral deal is being proposed behind their backs’, there would be grave consequences. ‘Campaigning weapons can be deployed,’ Mr Pritchard says menacingly, including boycotting the Town Hall election campaign and the referendum on changing the General Election voting system in May. Throwing down the gauntlet to Mr Cameron, Mr Pritchard demands an ‘unequivocal statement from the highest level of the party that no electoral pacts have been agreed or are being attempted’. In November, Sir John Major said the Lib Dem-Conservative ‘temporary alliance’ could turn into a ‘mini-realignment’ of politics and should continue after the next General Election. Mr Maude recently told a private meeting of Tories that the Coalition is a ‘bloody good thing’, adding: ‘Even if the Conservatives win a majority at the next Election, there will be a desire to continue with the Coalition among parts of the Conservative Party.’ MP Nick Boles, a protege of Mr Maude, is one of the few Tories who have publicly backed the idea of the two Coalition parties fighting the next Election as a single force. ‘If we spend five years together governing and we defend that record, it makes sense to have one candidate representing everything we have done,’ he said. Otherwise, he warned, the Coalition could collapse. Tory Cabinet Minister Mr Letwin reportedly once told a colleague ‘at heart, I am a liberal’. However, Mr Pritchard, MP for The Wrekin, has strong support from fellow Thatcherites. ‘Mark is saying publicly what a lot of us think privately,’ said one MP. ‘If we sit back and do nothing, we will wake up one day and find that the Conservative Party we know and love has vanished for good. It is obvious that the usual Cameron coterie is trying to promote this idea covertly, but what we need is a public debate.’ Mr Clegg faces a similar revolt from Lib Dem activists who fear the party may be swallowed up by the Tories. Key figures suspect Mr Cameron wants to recast the political landscape by absorbing ‘Right-wing’ Lib Dems such as Mr Clegg and David Laws into a new-style Tory Party, stripping the Lib Dems of their role as an independent third force in politics. If there are plans to try to agree a long-term political settlement between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats beyond 2015, then senior Ministers must show due respect to the parliamentary party and the Conservative Party at large and agree to an open discussion about the merits and demerits of any such pact. Westminster’s political ranks form a very small part of a wider and larger Conservative Party – a party made up of local councillors, Assembly members, MSPs, party professionals and hard-working activists. It would be a mistake, an avoidable mistake, to believe the Conservative Party would accept such a seismic shift in the way it goes about its electoral business without first allowing its many members to have their say on when and how the Conservative Party should compete with Liberal Democrats at the ballot box. If the parliamentary and voluntary party discover that an electoral deal is being proposed behind their backs, then it is inevitable there will be political fallout, resulting in fractures the party can ill afford. The Coalition is likely to face enough legislative headaches over the next few months – welfare reform, major constitutional upheaval and votes for prisoners – without embarking on a course of action likely to cause even more pain. While most of the ‘purple plotters’ (those trying to permanently blend the traditional blue and yellow colours of each party with a dash of red for the sizeable Lib Dem Left) mean well, there are fundamentalists among them who are at this very moment straining their political sinews in a misguided attempt to try to supplant the very heart and soul of the Conservative Party itself – a clumsy attempt to try to deconstruct the most successful political party in British history. These zealots need to reread the history of the Party: a party that has always adapted, always modernised, but that has made changes in response to the demands of the British people – not changes concocted as part of a speculative political experiment. The parliamentary party and long-suffering volunteers will treat with understandable anger any Minister caught attempting to test and probe them in a high-risk electoral Petri dish. Over the next five years, as the European courts continue to encroach on individual freedoms, overrule our own courts and gnaw away at British parliamentary sovereignty, and as the Liberal Democrats, mostly unwittingly, inexorably steer Government policies Leftwards, hard-working and over-taxed Britons will be drawn to look for something new come the next Election, something defined, a clear agenda that puts a halt to ‘more of the same’ and gooey dumbed-down consensus. Hopefully this change will come in the form of a distinct and self-confident Conservative Party – not a 2015 Frankenstein or political chimera. Trust will become a defining word over the life of the Coalition, especially trust between the parliamentary party and the party leadership. The Coalition was built on trust and is mostly sustained on trust. Governments can survive losing votes – but few survive losing trust. The Prime Minister is smart, and understands this. But the clamour is now growing for the party leadership to make clear their own thoughts on Coalition life beyond 2015. Plotting: 'Trust will become a defining word over the life of the Coalition, especially trust between the parliamentary party and the party leadership' It does not help the Prime Minister’s own cause if some Ministers are saying one thing about electoral pacts inside Cabinet but something entirely different to parliamentary colleagues or the party in the country. Those championing permanent electoral deals should have the courage of their convictions and stand up and make their case – openly. If clear battle lines are drawn, then Conservative activists are up for the fight. But if orders are unclear or there is confusion over what campaigning weapons can be deployed, then motivating and mobilising the troops leading up to May’s elections could prove difficult. Such a scenario could also have a direct impact on mobilising ‘No’ campaigners prior to the AV referendum. Notwithstanding the need for the Westminster Coalition to succeed, and the unique political factors surrounding Westminster parliamentary by-elections up to the end of the Parliament, there should be an early and unequivocal statement from the highest level of the Party that no electoral pacts – assembly, regional or local – have been agreed or are being attempted. Further, that no coalition agreement has been agreed, or is being proposed, beyond the current Parliament. At the next General Election, the Conservative Party must fight to win – to win an outright majority and send the Liberal Democrats packing. It is the ‘temporary’ nature of the existing political settlement from which the Coalition draws its strength – not the prospect of its permanence. Even the Liberal Democrats privately admit they are living on borrowed time. Lovers of purple may think they can, through machinations and cunning, corner the great British public like some electoral animal after a five-year chase, creating coalition government in perpetuity, but they are gravely mistaken. The biggest error of any British politician, however clever they believe themselves to be, is to underestimate the intelligence of the British electorate and an unwritten national understanding that politicians are subject to the people’s desire for change – not the other way around. For Britain’s democracy is the people’s democracy. It should not be the plaything of the political establishment in Westminster. If Ministers are preparing to trade in the Conservative Party’s political swords for his-and-hers ploughshares then they should do the decent thing – and let the whole of the Conservative Party have its say. Phil Woolas lost his seat as an MP after being found guilty of knowingly making false statements about Lib Dem Elwyn Watkins The three main party leaders will hit the campaign trail this week in the first real test of public opinion since the formation of the Tory/Lib Dem Coalition – the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election. Tory leader David Cameron faces accusations that he is deliberately trying to lose the poll on January 13 to save his Coalition partner Nick Clegg.Tory MPs revolt over 'Frankenstein' merger:
Leading backbencher issues warning to Prime Minister over Lib Dem union fears
Stop this dishonest plotting to abolish our Party
Explore more:
Cameron 'wants to lose poll for Clegg' as party leaders hit campaign trail
Sunday, 2 January 2011
Last updated at 2:44 AM on 2nd January 2011
The Lib Dem rank and file is traditionally much closer to Labour and there has been speculation that rebel Lib Dem MPs could break away from Mr Clegg, leaving him with no choice but to throw in his lot with the Conservatives.
By MARK PRITCHARD
Conservative MP for The Wrekin and Secretary of the 1922 Committee
Last updated at 3:03 AM on 2nd January 2011
Posts
