With the first Tory MP having defected to UKIP in Douglas Carswell and many others now bailing out of the 2015 fight altogether, the Conservative Party appears to increasingly resemble a nervous wreck and David Cameron seems to be losing his authority within.
Another one has bitten the dust: Tory MP Chris Kelly won’t be contesting the next General Election.
I have written for Breitbart London before on how Tories in strong UKIP areas seem to be ducking out of the fight.
I know personally that this particular MP was intensely fearful of UKIP’s purple surge in his neck of the woods.
Chris Kelly’s is another seat where the party is strong. Back in 2010 UKIP scored over 8 percent in Dudley South, amongst the best in the country at that time. MEP Bill Etheridge is standing for UKIP in Dudley North and the pressure was on for Chris Kelly.
He appears to have gone the way of the Conservative MPs for South Thanet and Boston and Skegness. The going got tough – and they are bailing.
It exposes just how little Tories facing a tough UKIP battle on the ground really believe in David Cameron’s faux Eurosceptic strategy of shifting on a six-pence every few weeks as a reaction to UKIP’s continuing rise.
The real question is, just how many more Tory MPs will throw the towel in rather than go twelve rounds with UKIP next year? They increasingly don’t appear to be up for the fight.
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