Double Trouble For Cameron As One Conservative Defects To The Fascists And Another Resigns In A Sex Scandal

Just under a month ago, we reported how Conservative Member of Parliament Douglas Carswell had ditched the Tories and joined the fascist-oriented UKIP. The libertarian-leaning Carswell resigned from Parliament, triggering a by-election, in which he is favored to win-- and become the UKIP's only Member of Parliament. Earlier today he was joined by another Tory Member, Mark Reckless, a drunkard and former UBS Warburg stock crook, the Member for Rochester and Strood, southeast of London in north Kent. Like Carswell, he dumped the Conservative Party, joined UKIP and triggered a by-election by resigning his seat. He did it rather dramatically, as both parties of the right-- the Conservatives in Birmingham and UKIP in Doncaster-- were starting their annual conventions.

It was a bad day for Cameron, who also lost a Cabinet minister in another Conservative Party sex scandal-- this one based on a fake Twitter account set up specifically to ensnare randy Conservative legislators. Civil Society Minister Brooks Newmark was the one the Sunday Mirror caught. Newmark, who is very wealthy, 56 years old, married and has 5 children, was forced to resign after he sent an Anthony Weiner-like photo of himself to a male newspaper reporter posing as a horny conservative girl. He attempted to set up an offline liaison with "her," although when first confronted, he denied everything before looking at the clear evidence and realizing his political career was over.

Reckless' defection was an even worse blow for David Cameron, coming at the start of a conference that was the kickoff to the Conservative reelection campaign.

Reckless, who told cheering UKIP delegates yesterday that “the leadership of the Conservative Party is part of the problem that is holding our country back,” said he’s resigning his seat in the House of Commons. He then plans to run as a UKIP candidate in a special election in his district. He’s following in the footsteps of Douglas Carswell, the first Tory to defect a month ago, who’s running for re-election for UKIP in his Clacton constituency to the east of London on Oct. 9.

Cameron condemned Reckless’s move today, telling BBC Television’s “Andrew Marr Show” that “to act in a way that makes a Conservative government less likely is senseless and counterproductive.” Carswell and Reckless are two people who “want to leave the European Union no matter what,” he said in Birmingham, central England, the venue for the Tory conference. He called the news from the UKIP conference “frustrating.”

…Reckless told UKIP delegates in Doncaster, northern England, that he believes the premier is only using the pledge of a referendum “as a device.” He said voters had been “ripped off and lied to.”

A ComRes Ltd. poll for the Sunday Mirror and Independent on Sunday newspapers put UKIP support at 19 percent, in third place behind the Tories’ 29 percent and Labour’s 35 percent. Forty-three percent of UKIP backers voted Tory in 2010. ComRes interviewed 2,003 adults Sept. 24-26. It didn’t specify a margin of error.

…Reckless’s move presents Farage with the prospect of UKIP gaining its first two elected members of Parliament within a few weeks. Carswell is the clear favorite with bookmakers to be re-elected in Clacton.

The latest defector took 49.2 percent of the vote in his district in Kent in the 2010 general election, more than 20 percentage points ahead of the second-placed Labour Party candidate.

Still, “the seat is much less natural UKIP territory than Clacton, Rob Ford, co-author of :Revolt on the Right," a study of the party, said in an interview. "All hell will break loose if the Tories lose there. They gave up in Clacton, but they have to crush Reckless here."

Reckless told reporters he thinks he has "a fighting chance" of re-election, though Rochester is "not even in the top 100 of Conservative seats vulnerable to UKIP" in the 650-member House of Commons.

Should be a fun election campaign!