Shropshire MP Mark Pritchard set the fox among the new year chickens this week by warning David Cameron of the danger of the creation of a “Frankenstein” Conservative Party.

He called openly on the PM to make sure that he is completely straight with his party about any suggestion of a permanent link with the Liberal Democrats.

The Wrekin MP, who would be opposed to any permanent coalition or merger, warned against “purple plotters” who he fears are attempting behind closed doors to blend the Tory blue with the Lib Dem yellow and a dash of red for the sizeable left wing in Nick Clegg’s party.

Mr Pritchard is the first Conservative parliamentarian to stick his head above the parapet and voice the concerns of unsettled backbench MPs and grass roots Tories. He said there were “fundamentalists” among the purple plotters who “at this very moment are straining their political sinews in a misguided attempt to supplant the very heart and soul of the Conservative Party”.

Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard

This, he said in an article for the Mail on Sunday, amounted to “a clumsy attempt to try to deconstruct the most successful political party in British history”.

Mr Pritchard told this column, however, that he was a supporter of the Coalition and his concern was that it would be undermined by any secret attempt to create a long-standing Tory-Lib Dem pact.

“We should have an open and transparent dicussion about any such pact. People from the grass roots upwards should be able to have their say,” he said.

The Wrekin MP said Tory activists needed to have a clear idea of whether or not they were supposed to be fighting Liberal Democrats at by-elections and particularly at the next general election.

“Unless there is clarity, it is going to gnaw away at Conservatives both in Parliament and locally in The Wrekin, in Shropshire and beyond. The Tory Party is not a plaything of some political elite at Westminster.

The Shropshire MP’s views reflect a belief among backbenchers that Mr Cameron is surrounded by a youthful clique who, they feel, have too big an infuence on him. As secretary of the 1922 committee of Conservative MPs, Mr Pritchard has access to the Prime Minister, but clearly feels he needed to feed his thoughts to a wider audience.

He did not mince his words, insisting that any change must come in the form of a distinct and confident Conservative Party “not a Frankenstein or political chimera”.

Some Tories were unhappy with an apparent “go easy” approach from Mr Cameron to next week’s Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election where his mate Nick’s party is heading for a drubbing.

Personal interest comes into play here too. The idea that Conservative candidates should soft-peddle at a general election would result in a nationwide revolt in the party.

In many constituencies Tories need a three-party contest to ensure that Lib Dems take left-of-centre votes from Labour where Ed Miliband’s party is the main threat.

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Owen Paterson and his family spent Christmas at the Northern Ireland Secretary’s official residence in Belfast, Hillsborough Castle.

Sounds grand but the Patersons didn’t escape the waterproblems which hit the province. The Castle was without water for eight hours at a time in line with the rota supply system in operation.

However, the North Shropshire MP was keen to put the inconvenience in perspective. “Our difficulties were completely trivial compared with those faced by many households and businesses which were without mains water for up to two weeks,” said Mr Paterson.