Crossing the Great Divide
Bubble — By Rene Kinzett on December 18, 2009 6:00 am
The great defector: not once, but twice
“ANYONE can rat, but it takes a certain amount of ingenuity to re-rat,” remarked Winston Churchill around the time of his return to the Conservative Benches in the 1924 General Election, having previously left them for a stint as a Liberal some 20 years previously.
While such return crossings of the floor are rare, the tradition of the defection in British politics took a new twist last week with the first ever switch between parties within the National Assembly for Wales. While sitting Members have left or have been kicked out of their parties and have sat as independents between elections (John Marek and Peter Law from Labour; and Rod Richards from the Conservatives), it was not until Mohammed Asghar left Plaid Cymru and crossed the floor of the Assembly Siambr to join the Welsh Conservative benches that a proper defection had ever taken place down at Cardiff Bay.
Mr Asghar’s decision took many by surprise, but the defection would undoubtedly have been weeks in the planning and must have taken a great deal of patience, organisation and above all discretion to ensure that the switch happened at a time and in the manner of the choosing of both the Conservatives and Mr Asghar.
I know from first-hand that the party to which one is switching approaches the prospect of capturing a defector very carefully indeed, with a mix of motivations and competing priorities – to get the deal done as quickly as possible, but doing so while making sure the new recruit is not scared off, nor allowing the prospect of the catch to get out beyond a few select people within the party.
My own experiences cover my role as a defector in my own right, the organiser of a defection and working for a high profile politician after they had defected.
At local council level, defections are relatively commonplace and are often based on rows and fall outs between colleagues in the very personalised and febrile world of local politics. In fact, when I discussed my defection from the Liberal Democrats to the Conservatives back in 2006 with a former Lib Dem MP, she asked me what committee chairmanship I had lost. It is indeed these affronts to pride – or, more accurately, the pocket – which drive councillors across the floor in city, town and shire halls all over the country, almost every single week. Offers made to potential recruits from the other side will most probably be made up of lucrative ‘extra responsibility allowances’ for chairing one of the overview or scrutiny committees, or an even more financially rewarding job with a seat on the authority’s cabinet. It has even been known for defectors to be enticed with the prospect of lording it over their communities as the all-important planning committee chairman.
I had to meet with the Shadow Secretary of State, the director of the party in Wales, the Welsh Conservatives chairman to satisfy all their investigations into me, while my reasons for wanting to join the Party all had to be vetted by party HQ in London. For Mr Asghar, a similarly in-depth process was undertaken. No party should immediately rush into accepting converts – as UKIP found to its price when taking on the flamboyant Mr Kilroy-Silk.
The defector will invariably be described as a walking embodiment of cant hypocrisy and arch disloyalty, or a paragon of virtue, the living example of principle over partisanship, depending whether you’re speaking for the defector’s former or new political party.
One thing that the defector can never be is an unquestioning drone of the party machine, either for the party they leave or indeed the party they join. Perhaps the defector had shown signs of “disloyalty” before the final jump, questioned party policy and indeed may have voted against the party line on more than one occasion. This in turn poses a problem for the party managers in the defector’s new home: will this truculent behaviour continue after the move?
Emma (now Baroness) Nicholson stunned the political world in 1995 when she crossed the floor of the Commons to sit as a Liberal Democrat after representing Devon West & Torridge in the Conservative interest since 1987. She had also held the position of Vice-Chair (Women) of the Conservative Party. Soon after her defection, a small Guardian piece quoted her as saying that the most over-rated personal virtue was “loyalty”. Having had ancestors in both Houses of Parliament since the 17th Century, Nicholson’s family had only been proper Conservatives since one of her great-grandfathers crossed the floor to them from the Liberals in 1871. Perhaps Nicholson saw a longer game approach to political parties and transitory “loyalties” to them?
In the early development of political parties or groupings within Parliament, it was commonplace for Parliamentarians to shift between groups, either because of a specific issue, or to gain advantage, or to help to thwart and opponent. The two great forces of Victorian politics, Gladstone and Disraeli, had both started out as Tory MPs until a mixture of policy issues and conflicting personal loyalties led the two men to become sworn enemies. This famous enmity helped lead to the creation of the first modern political parties.
Gladstone’s journey from Conservative politics, once seen as “the rising hope of those stern unbending Tories”, to the founder of the Liberal Party is not so odd in British politics. Roy Jenkins, the former Labour Chancellor and reforming Home Secretary, went on to found the Social Democratic Party, while his fellow SDP convert and former Labour Foreign Secretary Dr David Owen eventually ended up supporting the Conservatives in the 1992 General Election. None can, in modern time, top the record of John Horam MP, currently the Conservative Member for Orpington, who started out as a Labour MP before stopping by at the SDP and eventually and finally alighting at his current home. Mr Horam certainly could give the Vicar of Bray a run for his money in the adaptability stakes.
One thing remains constant throughout defections: the impact on one’s personal and family life can be intense. Old friends and associates may quickly become new political enemies and often such conflicts are adorned with all the bitterness of familial disputes. Local activists who worked hard to get the defector elected will feel betrayed. There may even be an air of lingering mistrust about the defector, with their new party perhaps not quite knowing where the new boy or girl sits on various issues. The warning that Mr Bligh gave to Mr Christian on leaving the Bounty, that the mutinous crew would be liable to further acts of betrayal may, perhaps rather unfairly, continue to ring in the ears of all those who seek to profit from the acts of a defector.
Defections are part of the very fabric of the British political system, with all parties benefiting and losing out to decisions by politicians at all levels to switch allegiances. It creates a sore feeling among the party that has lost out, and a feeling of euphoria for the party which has gained. But both these feelings remain transitory as most defectors and the parties concerned usually agree that the switch was, perhaps, the best for all concerned.
Tags: Churchill, Gladstone, Mohammad Asghar, Plaid Cymru, Welsh Conservatives, Welsh Liberal Democrats
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7 Comments
This is the first thoughtful and considerate response I’ve read from a Conservative on the matter of Asghar’s defection. Others have been high-handed and dismissive, often claiming that Plaid “had it coming”. This kind of conclusion is as arrogant as it is ignorant.
It isn’t Plaid’s fault that Asghar decided to effectively fire his staff by press conference – and even if it was, they deserve better for their service than becoming the unwitting victims of a media stunt. Just as it isn’t Plaid’s fault that a number of senior members of the party believed they maintained personal friendships with the man, and were more hurt than outraged by his defection – and, most importantly, the callous manner in which he carried it out.
Rene rightly points out that people’s political opinions shift. Hard to argue with this. Politicians are as subject to changes not only in personal circumstances like the rest of us. They are sometimes slapped in the face with the reality of their convictions, and change as a consequence. What is hard to stomach is Asghar’s particular reasons for his jump which, even now, remain fuzzy and unconvincing: why would such a convicted unionist and a royalist join a nationalist and republican party?
Rene is also right in saying that it will probably turn out for the best. Once the party gets over the shock of the cool and calculating way he betrayed his staff (and this is what really rankles among the membership, no matter what is said outside its ranks), I strongly suspect that most people in Plaid will heave a quiet sigh of relief that he is gone. As for those high-handed Tories, they may come to see Mohammed Asghar’s defection as something of a hospital pass.
Good piece, Rene – thanks for that.
I agree with Duncan’s comment in general terms. Rene is by his own admitance a defector (I prefer the term “turn coat”) but it’s quite fair to point out that during periods in life people will sometimes change direction, develop new views, all of which will be based upon life experiencces.
The sticking point I think with Plaid is that he didn’t tell his colleagues nor most importantly his current garden-leave staff.
Kim Howells MP who has announced today that he is standing down has equally had an interesting journey from Miners’ Unionist to the Communist Party through to being a New Labour Minister – one hell of a journey – though admittedly hardly one of defection except in purist terms. His memoirs will be well worth a read as he’s never held back on his views of life, politics and his colleagues at Westminster. Let’s not even consider his views on devolution, the National Assembly and Plaid Cymru – that’s an article for another day!
I wish Oscar well though I’m not sure where his journey will take him. Great article Rene, Diolch.
A very good article indeed. Nice to read something thoughtful which has a historical perspective.
I particularly liked his comments about the impact on the politician – the loss of friends, colleagues and the suspicion with which the ‘turn coat’ is viewed by their new pals. Very daunting. It takes either courage of new conviction or some other ‘incentive’. With Oscar we are not so sure which it is.
Pity Kinzett doesn’t have much of a chance in Swansea but he may cause the others to raise their game.
Interesting stuff.
As someone who joined a new party after previously being member of another, I can see the number of different emotions that come into play when this occurs.
Mine was one of conviction, circumstance and personality, so perhaps all of the reasons rolled into one.
The most comforting thing for me was that despite my previous oppositional tone to my new party’s policy, it wasnt the seismic change that many encounter. I mean, I was a left winger calling for Wales to have ‘political self governance’ prior to joining Plaid. In truth I was just a nobody from Pontypool, so hardly earth shattering.
I am loathe to mention Mr Asghar again, but to me his defection is the the worst kind – basically bull*** wrapped in some self interested reasons.
It is interesting to perhaps contemplate the party that ‘welcomes’ the defectors, and how that defectors acts to the party he or she left. I can remember a certain Welsh AM once pulling a rent a crowd outside the Senedd to ‘announce’ a tory councillor has switched to Labour, which even to the Labourites there seemed a bit sickly. Personally, I thought Alan Davies’ attack dog mentality to Plaid Ministers seems not inkeeping with good taste for example, given his past. Respect should be paid to previous political homes, despite wanting to highlight your new party.
Agree with many comments above. However, it’s worth noting (and I don’t say this in respect of Mohammad Asghar) that parties often recruit and retain people who do not appear to be at home in that party from the start. Party membership is not always a product of carefully mapping one’s on beliefs onto an organisation; sometimes people join because they know people in that party, or because they have family members in it. Sometimes they are recruited by someone charismatic and simply fall into it.
The other point is that defectors often change their beliefs – at least publicly – far more quickly and radically than others feel is plausible. This is not so much the zeal of the converted, but the need to conform very quickly to the new party. It may not be insincere, but it is often done to prove to the new hosts that the defector will not be a trouble maker to them.
Very nice piece. I have no problem with FPTP members defecting all they like; I have a problem with someone who is representing a party (and photo or no photo on the ballot, he is representing the party) being able to defect! He is simply not eligible to do this. How can he? He was only elected because x% voted Plaid!
I trust the Government of Wales Act 20xx will fix this!
It is, as Alistair Campbell would call it: a “process” issue.
Thanks for engaging and positive comments. I do not intend to enter into the specific arguments about Oscar’s defection to the Welsh Conservatives, except to say that I, of course, welcome his decision to join my Party. I think the general points I have made about the hurt that can be caused to those you leave behind cover some of the points of criticism made against Oscar in the comments above. I do not seek to make light of the real effect on either activists, friends or indeed staff, I had to grapple with many of the same emotional issues when I left the LibDems. I think the point made by Marcus about “respect” for one’s former Party is well made and interesting – in my case whilst I have maintained positive relationships with some of the more sensible and “politically smart” Welsh LibDems (how many of them is that? sorry couldn’t resist!) I have faced real vitriol from others and having to continue to work on my local council, the fact that some LibDems could barely be in the same room as me made things rather difficult. I do not know the full details of Alun Davies’ relationships with people in his former party, but when I was faced (and continue to face) real hostility, it does become all too easy to descend to the level of behaviour one is confronted with.