MP Mark Pritchard in Lib-Con ‘alliance’ row
Monday 31st January 2011, 8:00PM GMT.
Shropshire MP Mark Pritchard was at the centre of a growing storm today over alleged secret moves by senior Conservatives to forge a long-term alliance with the Liberal Democrats.
The Conservative MP for the Wrekin had agreed to stop “rocking the boat” if the plan was stopped in its tracks. But he said he could no longer remain silent after reports of behind-closed-doors discussions.
The reports allege Tory ministers and their coalition partners are planning to encourage anti-Labour tactical voting at the next General Election.
“I was told that this nonsense about joining with the Lib Dems would stop, but it hasn’t,” said Mr Pritchard.
“I am not prepared to have unnamed Cabinet ministers putting about stories of pacts and mergers while party traditionalists like me are gagged.
“The vast majority of Conservative members believe in retaining the traditions of the Tory Party. This debate must be held in the open.”
He added: “It should be remembered that the future of our country and party is more important than any one person who happens to reside in No 10.”
Mr Pritchard is secretary of the 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs which keeps the leadership informed of the mood on the back benches.
A furious Mr Pritchard earlier warned against what he called “a Cabinet plot”.
He claimed “purple plotters” – a group of Conservative and Lib Dem politicians – were secretly trying to merge the two parties with the support of Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
But Mr Pritchard warned there would be “fractures” in the Conservative Party if the parliamentary and voluntary party discovered an electoral deal was being proposed “behind their backs”.
The Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election showed an informal pact could work to the advantage of both parties.
By London Reporter Sunita Patel
UK News
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The Tory party would not have had the opportunity of finally, completely ruining all that is good about this country and at the same time sell out our bright English youngsters if we had not been conned at the election by the libdems ….. who are now condeming us:(
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Well Eva, which party introduced tuition fees for “bright English youngsters” in the first place, and simultaneously put us into massive debt to pay for PFI and the creation of eight hundred thousand public sector jobs, at the expense of the same taxpayers who now cannot afford to subsidise the universities?
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Well said.
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… both of you!
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Ah there he is Mr Prichard Telford’s other MP wondered where he had gotten too, per chance will he comment on the MP for Shrewsburys recomments over Telford secodary to Shrewsbury with respect to health care, will he comment on Mr Kawczynski’s talk of aggressive and militant actions ?? or will he sit idle by without due regard to his CONSTIQUENCY, ie the people that put him there.
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Yet he has no comments to make about our hospital services, the privatisation of the NHS, selling off our forests or the gerrymandering of the constitution. Thanks Mark, you really have your priorities in order.
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Who the eff does he think he is, Royalty?
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I remember when the Tory party were in power in the early 1990s and they blamed that recession on a world recession. Are you saying that the Labour party are responsible for the global bank crisis Stephen? That the Tory party had no part in the situation?
The problem is that we have a huge debt as do many other countries but how that is rectified can be more painful for some than for others. The Tories like to make out that there is no choice in this matter and selling off our public assets has always been their way of balancing the books.
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I’m with Mr Pritchard. The Conservatives have been usurped by a bunch of revisionists with Mr Cameron at the helm.
They should stick to what they do best, outright evil. Let’s give no truck to those nay-sayers who want a (please adopt whiny voice for this bit) ‘acceptable face of capitalism’. (You can stop the whiny voice bit now)
Well, I’ve got some news for you, it doesn’t have one. So boo-hoo !
What we need right now in this country are MPs like Mr Pritchard who lead the way – reminding us of Nero’s fiddlemanship – showing us that work alone won’t get us out of these gloomy financial times. Yes we all need to kick back and do some serious navel-gazing about the state of the parties. To quote Father Jack, ‘That would be an ecumenical matter’
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