With today’s announcement of Andrew Bridgen’s defection to Laurence Fox’s Reclaim Party, Guido took the opportunity to ask whether more might follow. Although Laurence demurred, Andrew Bridgen did hint at more potential defections:

“There are a lot of Conservative MPs who, for various reasons, have lost the whip or been deselected. I would ask you to take a look at the number of Conservative MPs that voted against plan B in December of 2021 and see what number of those are no longer in the party or have lost the whip or been deselected. That’s quite telling.”

Guido has listened to Bridgen’s advice and taken a look at the suspended Tories who voted against Plan B. It’s hardly an illustrious list:

• David Warburton

• Julian Knight

• Rob Roberts

• Scott Benton

There were 99 Conservatives in total voting against the measures, so there’s a wide pool of talent for Reclaim to target. The four above will have the least to lose by jumping ship…