UK: I'm quitting the Tories for UKIP

A former Tory treasurer has defected from the Conservatives to the UK Independence Party over David Cameron’s handling of Europe. Lord Hesketh says he lost faith in the party after the Prime Minister reneged on his promise to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. In an interview with the Daily Mail, the former Conservative fundraiser said he would now devote his efforts to drumming up funds for UKIP.

Before the general election, Mr Cameron gave a ‘cast iron’ pledge to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. However the treaty was ratified before he came to power and he said there would be no point having a poll at that point. But Lord Hesketh, who first canvassed for the party in 1959 and was a minister under Margaret Thatcher, said last night: ‘I was appalled when we reneged on the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

‘It didn’t matter that Brown had signed it. Labour had said there would be a referendum. And Cameron could have said the treaty had not been properly dealt with, and therefore he would have been justified in holding one.

He added: ‘I believed until we went back on the commitment to the referendum that he would have a good hand to play, and could tell the rest of Europe we had to sit down and talk about the future.’

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