Sentences with phrase «labour defections»

Labour's vote share is actually not too far where it was under Ed Miliband *, just one ortwo points down on the general election result, and yet you hear stories of mass Labour defections in the North, the Midlands and in Wales.

Similarly there were two Labour defections, long - time Labour councillor Dorothy Walton went to the Liberal Democrats and Michael Smith became an Independent.

Not exact matches

There's got to be scope for mass defections from the Lib Dems to Labour if Labour can articulate a message that left - liberals feel comfortable with.

The government is struggling to craft a motion that satisfies Liberal Democrat MPs — who in many cases owe their seats to anti-Iraq-war defections from Labour in 2005 — as well as little England Tory backbenchers who, nudged by Ukip's anti-intervention stance yesterday, fear that Nigel Farage speaks for their voters better than Cameron does.

Leader Tim Farron is amiable but lacks the magnetic statesmanship that could recruit big beast defections from Labour or Tory benches.

This fits the pattern found in earlier work when Labour were in power — the EU election defections were primarily from them.

Those whips might have thought it was «their turn» — since Reg Prentice's defection in 1977, no Labour MPs have crossed the floor, while four Tories have travelled the other way.

[1] The Liberal Party, founded in 1859, were descended from the Whigs, Radicals and Peelites, while the SDP were a party created in 1981 by former Labour members, MPs and cabinet ministers, but also gained defections from Conservatives.

Did they consistently over-estimate Labour support in the campaign or was there a late defection to the Conservatives?

I would still expect their support to be squeezed as we get closer to the election, as the race focuses more upon the binary choice between a Conservative and Labour led government but events, such as further defections now a by - election is no longer unavoidable, could easily push that off course.

Reports of Conservative voters jumping ship to join UKIP, follow previous defections including Winston Churchill, elected as a Conservative MP defecting to the Liberal Party and back again, plus the SDP in 1981 mainly formed from the Labour ranks.

But there have been remarkably few defections among Labour voters to the Tory camp over the past five years.

Labour won all 51 seats on the council in 2010, but, by the time of this election, had only 44 councillors due to defections, with Robert Douglas, Dorothy Hunt, Graham Letchford and Tariq Saeed defecting to the UK Independence Party, and James McDermott, Barry Poulton and Gerald Vincent defecting to the Socialist Labour Party.

Labour has been hugely strengthened by the mass defection of left - leaning Lib Dem voters to the red corner.

[53] By 1977 by - election losses and defections to the breakaway Scottish Labour Party left Callaghan heading a minority government, forced to do deals with smaller parties in order to govern.

The Tories deliberately bigged up the UKIP threat to Labour in advance of the by - election because it was a win - win for them: either it would increase defections from Labour to UKIP, or (as happened) UKIP would disappoint.

Addressing House of Representatives correspondents shortly after leaving the chambers, the PDP caucus in solidarity with members of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA and Labour Party, LP said they were heading back to court to seek reinterpretation of the Supreme Court judgment on member's defection especially when there is no division in his or her political party.

While his defection may prove a double - edged sword for Labour, and it may even disrupt Ukip, it is really horrible for David Cameron.

The seemingly endless rumours of Liberal Democrat defections to Labour have been dealt another blow after Lembit Opik confirmed he was staying with his party.

The Conservatives have won a mild coup against Labour with the defection of a north London councillor.

Labour has claimed another scalp from the Tories with the defection of a Welsh Conservative activist.

This constituency had been a loyal Labour Party seat having returned a Labour MP in all 29 elections since 1918 and specifically since 1922 when MP Wedgwood defected from the highly centrist and compromising Liberal Party at the time to the Labour Party — his was among a great series of defections at this time see for example ex-Prime Minister H. H. Asquith's strong criticism of the Coalition Liberals particularly David Lloyd - George.

Conservative blogger Tony Sharp finds the situation baffling and is unimpressed by the defection of councillors just days after they were elected under Labour colours.

[1] In Welsh Assembly elections the Welsh Conservatives were the third most supported party, having been overtaken by Plaid Cymru in the 2016 election; although following a defection from Plaid Cymru to Labour, and a defection from UKIP to the Conservatives, they are now the second largest party in the Assembly.

Despite this, Labour's lead in these seats has grown from 9 to 14 points over the last two years, largely because of the defection of Tory voters to UKIP.

After a catastrophic week for Labour, and defections and scandals for the Tories, many in Glasgow believe that there is simply no way that Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems could have a worse conference than the other parties.

Poor Farron tried to spark some media interest by insisting Labour people had been in touch considering defection, but the Today interview he did on Monday strongly suggested this was a fib.

David Cameron's Conservatives are making good progress from a low base, but should remember the lesson of last year's Ealing Southall by - election fiasco where, as Sunny Hundal of the Pickled Politics blog notes: «The Tory modernisers got sucked into the worst of communal politics», securing the bloc defection of five Sikh Labour councillors but not the voters they claimed to speak for.

[4] However the Liberal Democrats did gain from a defection, when in December 2013 a Welsh Harp councillor Dhiraj Kataria left Labour to join the Liberal Democrats.

Following this election, the council returned to no overall control, as the sizable swing from Lib Dem to Labour allowed Labour to gain five seats directly from the Lib Dems, and two from earlier defections, making Labour narrowly the largest party with 43 seats to the Lib Dem's 42.

[4][5] The defections meant that before the election Labour had 34 seats on the council, compared to 18 for the Conservatives and 11 for the Liberal Democrats.

But this campaign has seen the defection to the Conservatives of one particular Worcester woman, Pam Clayton - who served as a Labour councillor in the city between 2004 and 2008.

Since last year's final polls David Cameron has been targetting the Lib Dems, appealling for defections — it will be interesting to see if next year the Lib Dem vote is squeezed by a resurgent Conservative party (or, if Tony Blair does step down, by anti-war Labour protest voters returning to the fold) or whether they manage to hold onto and consolidate their support.

The election saw the Liberal Democrats extend their majority through a couple of gains from Labour, with both parties recouping seats where aforementioned defections had taken place.

Since the previous election, the Liberal Democrats and Labour had each suffered one defection - Ronald Shepherd left the Labour grouping to sit as an Independent and Lib Dem Matthew Dixon defected, firstly as an Independent and then to the Conservatives.

Glasgow did have a Labour majority, but has lost it through defections, and how well Labour does in its heartland of Glasgow given the SNP's success there last year will be one of the main things to watch.)

Both Leech and Stuart said they felt there would be no defections from the Lib Dems this parliament, and Leech gave a good illustration of the power of tribal loyalty, saying there was «more likelihood of me ripping up my Man City season ticket and getting a ticket to Old Trafford» than his leaving the Lib Dems for Labour.

At the last election in May 2014, Labour won all 69.9 % of the vote share, and all 51 seats [1], but due to defections has been reduced to 49 seats.

Almost 30 years since the Limehouse Declaration marked the defection of four senior Labour politicians to found the Social Democratic Party (SDP), a fledgling Lib Lab pact is being forged.

In the first place, the All Progressives Congress, except for some defections into it immediately after the 2015 presidential elections, is to all intents and purposes, an incarnate or clone of the ACN which has always suffered defeats in our hands through the little known Labour Party.

Last week was the Labour leader's big fight - back speech, this week was meant to be about the Tory by - election defeat to Ukip and next week should have been David Cameron's Götterdämmerung with new defections to Ukip and the emergence of a letter in the press, signed by dozens of Tory backbenchers, calling for a change in leader.

Everything about politics is relative and after a stinker of a week for Labour, it's clear the Tories» conference this week is going to be even worse after the shock defection of Rochester and Strood MP, Mark Reckless, to Ukip.

Farage told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, «There is a widespread feeling that the political leaderships of Labour, Lib Dem and Conservative are becoming so hopelessly out of touch with opinions in MPs» constituencies that it wouldn't surprise me if we saw more defections.»

They will be hard pressed to hold on to 7 %, though they will get some defections from the Lib Dems they will almost certainly lose some voters back to Labour.

Even against a backdrop of ministerial resignations and backbench defections to Ukip, Osborne thinks he can trump that with the message that you can't trust Labour with the economy.

Does require the UKIP vote to go to Torries plus defection from Labour to Both the Torries and the LIb Dems and prehaps a low turnout in the Labour strong hold heavily BME wards.