A dream for headline writers everywhere. On the eve of Tory conference Mark Reckless has defected to UKIP.

He was denying it less than 24 hours ago, but the clues were there in the Iraq vote:

Notably @MarkReckless, close friend of @DouglasCarswell, is using the same language as @Nigel_Farage to justify voting against air strikes.

— Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) September 26, 2014

@krishgm Indeed. Other Con MPs voted against and not aware Ukip has position

— Mark Reckless AM (@MarkReckless) September 26, 2014

And so to Birmingham.