Another Tory defects to UKIP

Richard Barnes, Deputy Mayor of London between 2008 and 2012, has announced that he has left the Conservative Party to join UKIP.

Barnes was also London Assembly member for Ealing and Hillingdon between 2000 to 2012 – but lost out at the last London election to Labour’s Dr Onkar Sahota. Barnes, who had also been a councillor for Hillingdon since 1982 (and became leader of the council in 1998) then stood as an independent council candidate in Harefield but failed to win. He told the Evening Standard why he has chosen to join UKIP:

“There seems to be a detachment from ordinary people’s lives in the Westminster Village. The parties just don’t seem to relate and talk the language of normal people.”

He went on to criticise David Cameron’s plan to renegotiate the UK’s relationship with the European Union:

“Do we really believe they can create a new settlement by 2017, with the agreement of all the member states. It’s just unrealistic. There has to be more clarity and it’s not there at the moment.”

“Our borders are massively porous. Immigration is a good idea, but it has to bring a benefit to our economic, social and cultural life.

“It cannot be to take advantage of the NHS or to exploit the benefits system. At the moment it’s a mess. We don’t count people in, or count them out. That would be a good place to start.”

This announcement makes Barnes the third Tory in the past month to jump ship to join the anti-EU, anti-immigration party led by Nigel Farage (he joins Mark Reckless, who announced his decision to leave on Saturday; and Douglas Carswell, who made his move at the end of August).

This certainly spells bad news for Cameron. We wonder if there could be a fourth before the week is out…