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Cameron attempts to build vote momentum
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UK Prime Minister David Cameron was bidding yesterday to rally his Conservatives at their annual conference, with the party reeling from a defection and a sex scandal.
Cameron admitted it had “not been an ideal start” to the gathering in Birmingham, after one lawmaker left the day before to join the euroskeptic United Kingdom Independence Party, then a junior minister quit after being caught sending an explicit photograph of himself.
The center-right Conservatives risk losing a handful of seats and thousands of votes to UKIP in next May’s general election — possibly enough to cost them victory.
Cameron told BBC television the defection of MP Mark Reckless to UKIP was “frustrating... counter-productive and rather senseless.” He said the aims Reckless claimed to be pursuing were “only” achievable through a Conservative government.
The conference comes a week before an election which could see UKIP land its first seat in the House of Commons at the Conservatives’ expense.
Douglas Carswell, the first Tory MP who switched sides to UKIP, is expected to be re-elected in the coastal town of Clacton on October 9, threatening a major embarrassment for Cameron.
The Conservatives govern in a coalition with the smaller Liberal Democrats but are vying to win a majority in 2015. If they do so, they have promised to hold a referendum in 2017 on whether Britain should continue to be a member of the EU.
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