Tory defects to Lib-Dems

The Liberal Democrats claimed a new defector from the Conservatives yesterday, taking the number of senior members who have joined them in recent years to seven.

Peter Price, an MEP from 1979 until 1994, accused William Hague of taking a "Little Englander" stance over the European single currency.

"When William Hague and the Shadow Cabinet decided to oppose British membership of the single currency for 10 years, however much it proves to be in British interests, they wrote the shortest political suicide note in history. That message signalled that the Conservative Party is now under the control of a group of ideologically-driven people - just as Labour was in the early 80s. The ideology is based on the Little Englander approach."