The relationship between Tory MPs who want a softer Brexit and local Conservative members has been strained for some time. This morning things came to a head. The backbench MP Nick Boles, who has been campaigning to stop a no-deal Brexit, announced that he was resigning from his local Conservative association. Boles will still remain as the MP for Grantham and Stamford until the next election, and hopes to keep the whip as a Conservative during that time.
In a letter to his local party, Boles set out the reasons for his decision to leave. He remembered how he had been at odds with his association over other issues in the past, such as his support for gay marriage, but their current belief that Britain should leave the EU without a deal meant that he was:
‘not willing to do what would be necessary to restore a reasonable working relationship with a group of people whose values and views are so much at odds with my own.’
Boles’ relationship with his party has been strained ever since he, along with Oliver Letwin and Yvette Cooper, tried to seize control of the parliamentary timetable in December last year to prevent a no-deal Brexit. In response, furious local party members (which generally support Britain leaving the EU without a deal) began the process of trying to deselect him. While under party rules they could not force Boles out immediately, they were attempting to make him to declare whether he would stand as a candidate in the next election, in which case they could make him fight against other Tory candidates to retain his position.
Boles’ decision to break ties with his party, but still remain a Conservative MP is an unusual arrangement (and possibly inspired by Labour MP Frank Field’s similar move last August), but it appears that it may be tolerated by the leadership. The Chief Whip Julian Smith has already stressed that Nick Boles ‘is a valued member of the Conservative Parliamentary party which I hope will continue to benefit from his ideas and drive’ suggesting that the Tories will try and keep him as a member.
At the moment, with several key votes on Brexit still to some, a number of MPs defecting to the Independent Group, and the government’s authority weakened more than ever in the Commons, it’s likely Theresa May would prefer to have Boles stay in the party, than lose another MP altogether.
Comments