John Bercow, the Tory MP widely tipped to be the next prominent Conservative to defect to Labour, has told Sky News he will not be attending his party's conference in Blackpool next week.

His no-show will add to speculation that he will be the next Tory MP to join Gordon Brown's "big tent" and the Labour Party.

He could also be paraded as a defector by Labour during the Tory conference.

All this week in Bournemouth, Brown allies have been talking up the prospect of more big-name defections from the Conservatives.

Many MPs are predicting a high-profile defection announcement on the eve of or during the Tory conference next week.

Mr Bercow held the blue-chip Tory seat of Buckingham with a massive 18,129 majority at the last general election.

He angered Tory MPs earlier this month by accepting an invitation from the Prime Minister to become a Government adviser on helping children with learning difficulties.

Tory defector Quentin Davies MP, who made a blistering speech at Labour's conference attacking David Cameron, has claimed that more Conservative MPs are poised to defect to Labour.

Mr Bercow has been tipped as a defector since Mr Davies' switch in June. Mr Bercow's wife, Sally Illman, is a Labour Party member.

In a further sign of turmoil and panic in the Conservative Party, Shadow Home Secretary and defeated leadership candidate David Davis has turned down all invitations to appear at fringe meetings in Blackpool.

This is a move seen as more evidence of the tension at the very top of the party.

UPDATE:

David Davis has phoned me from his constituency home as I'm driving away from Bournemouth on the M27.

When I call him back, he says I have implied in my report that he has turned down all Tory fringe invitations that there are differences between him and David Cameron.

Not so, he insists. (Actually, I didn't think I had implied that.)

He says he turned down the invitations back in June because he thought there might be an October or November election and he wanted to be free to devote all his energies to attacking Labour on law and order.

So there.

Keep reading the Boulton & Co blog, David!

Comments

[The Morning Post 29 Sep 2007 10:29:56]

The best thing for the Conservatives would be for Gordon to call an early election. Thus we will see exactly who speaks for Britain. Brown or Cameron. Regardless of the polls my guess is that it will be a close run thing. Brown is the greatest tax and waste Chancellor in history. Its surely not beyond the wit of Cameron to highlight this fact! Or is it?

[Jen 28 Sep 2007 18:58:47]

I think you will find that John Bercow was re-adopted to Buckingham yesterday - he pledged his support to the Conservative party.

So may be its time you stopped spinning Mr Bolton -

[Victor, NW Kent 28 Sep 2007 18:26:34]

Mark, if you read all the postings on these quite civilised blogs you will see that the end result is not very pro-left. A lot of the comment is quite balanced and Socialists are balanced out by Conservatives.

It is the reporters who choose the topics who have a pro-Labour stance. Some of them are embedded in the labour camp but all work for Murdoch and their written politics must be those that he pays them for.

If you want an entirely pro-Right blog then you should follow those in the Daily Mail. If you want a leftist blog then check the Guardian.

Of course you could try to follow some of threads elsewhere on this site - unbalance is more noticeable there - they are often pretty horrifying to read.

[Bruce Hulmes / England 28 Sep 2007 15:27:09]

The government of the talents did not know that we would be swamped by immigrants, so exactly where are these people with the talent.
I could have told them,Migration watch told them, BNP told them, Powell told us 40 years ago and only last year Blair said he had been wrong.
And finally when did immigration go from being good for the country to being bad? ask the talents.

[rita 28 Sep 2007 09:49:05]

Labour must call the election this year so people have a say. i think the tories are doing a good job and are in touch with the mood of the people; the tories understand the people better.

[mark, Edinburgh 28 Sep 2007 09:18:56]

It never ceases to amaze me how pro labour this blog is....talk of tory defector...Tory meltdown etc etc etc....where is the reports today of Tory wins from Labour in Sunderland...and fairly big swings to the Tories in other by-elections yesterday?

[E. Greenacre 27 Sep 2007 21:32:15]

Will men ever grow up? All this come and join in my gang, my gang's best, and he said, no he didn't he said. Are these really the people who have the responsibility for sending young men to war. No wonder so many people can't be bothered to walk to a polling booth to vote for them.

[Geoff McNeil-Davies, Rochdale 27 Sep 2007 20:57:13]

do none of the commentors on here notice something suspicious about the quietness of the tories of late?
There is no point in attacking Gordon Brown while he is still in his honeymoon period. By the time a general election comes along everybody will have forgotton about it.
Better off waiting till either the dust settles and people realise just who Gordon really is, or till Gordon calls a General election.
then you go on the attak with everything that has gone wrong since he took control, if you attack with the same things twice you will just be accused of going over the same topics and being repetative.
a TV debate would ruin Gordon Brown so he will not commit to it, yet not taking part will make him look like a coward who's reteric about trying to get more people involved in politics as nothing more than spin.
Also anybody going up against team Brown in an election has TEN years of disasters after disasters to pick from.

[UK Daily Pundit - blogosphere 27 Sep 2007 19:17:11]

With the greatest of respect to the best Home Secretary Britain will never have, if Mr Davis "wanted to be free to devote all his energies to attacking Labour on law and order," where's he been for the last three months? We haven't heard a peep out of him.

And I'm sure that if David wants to change his mind and speak at a fringe meeting next week his party activists would welcome it. He won't need an invitation. When you're David Davis you don't need an invitation. You just abseil out of a helicopter and boot the door down.

[John London 27 Sep 2007 19:17:10]

Brown and his great clunking fist is looking like the school bully. Lets not forget the lowly David defeated the mighty Goliath with 1 small stone and became a King. Upon seeing their hero defeated, the Philistine army made a disorderly retreat!

If Brown is so tough why is he so scared of a tv debate with the party leaders. Britain doesn't like bullies and Brown needs to be careful

[Craig Hants 27 Sep 2007 18:48:20]

Cannot believe people trust Brown its ok if your on the social,single parent,or a so called minority.This is the man who is scotish as i am who treats the english middle class as a money making machine for the rest of the world

[Tom, London 27 Sep 2007 17:29:15]

Craigy - some Labout MP's did not turn up to the Labour conference.

[Brian Christley in Abergele 27 Sep 2007 15:24:52]

If Cameron plans to go forward he must first stop going Zacwards.

[London 27 Sep 2007 14:53:55]

Last night I was talking with local Tory MP. A Cameron supporter. He had also heard the Bercow rumours a week ago but thought the chances were 50/50. He also told me that the Troies have been upto the same trick with four Lib Dems and one particular Labour MP who they were close persuading to defect. He would not tell me who but strongly hinted at Frank Field.

He also told me they have managed to secure 5 new donors who would each be willing to doante £2 million should an election be called. he said this might be announced just prior to Blackpool. He said the party thought they would have a war chest of more than double that of labour should an election be called.

He did not think an election would be called as Brown would be more likely to listen to the advice of the "Wise Heads" as opposed to the "Young Turks" as he called them.

[boris 27 Sep 2007 14:31:32]

Oh come on. You know better than this. It's not a weird thing for MP not to go to the conference. Fewer than half do. If they aren't speaking at a fringe event, most don't bother. The central party won't pay for them, and their local parties usually can't afford it.

[Anon anon 27 Sep 2007 14:23:47]

What a load of rubbish. A bloke is a loyal MP for ten years, decides to help try steer government policy on special educational needs (SEN) and the knives suddenly comes out..!

He has been an advocate for better provision in Parliament for years, and it might interest your readers to know that Bercow's young son has SEN. Wouldn't you try to steer the debate if you were given a similar opportunity?

One of the reasons he enjoys such a stomping majority in Buckingham is that he fights for his patch, and reaches beyond traditional Tory voters - how many other MPs can claim the same?

I know Bercow personally, and there is about as much chance as Gordon Brown defecting to UKIP as Bercow leaving the Tory Party.

[Gary Elsby 27 Sep 2007 13:25:39]

And why shouldn't that lovely gentleman, Jon Bercow defect to the sensible party?

After all, Dave defected 12 Months ago and his party haven't quite got used to it.

Ed Vasey is the next man up.
Go Ed go.

Gary

[Merv. Beszant, Dubai 27 Sep 2007 13:23:23]

David will put it down to 'Mad Bercow's Disease'

[Merv. Beszant, Dubai 27 Sep 2007 13:09:10]

I would have thought that attending the conference is obligatory, so presumably Mr. Cameron can sack Bercow if he doesn't show up.
It doesn't worry me one bit whether he attends or not, but, although not being a Cameron admirer, I do find the manner in which members of his party are behaving to be totally unacceptable.

[Oliver McCarthy 27 Sep 2007 13:01:51]

Best news I've heard all day! Are there any more former members of the Monday Club the Tories can fob off on Gordon Brown? Otherwise the "Tory" party in Parliament will have got so out of touch with ordinary conservative people that it'll be impossible for us to work together again for a generation.

[michael m 27 Sep 2007 13:01:04]

This would be a tragedy for the Conservative Party.
As a life time member and Cameron supporter I despair of what is happening- the Shadow Cabinet have been virtually invisable in recent months and open goals- Foot and Mouth(twice) Gun Crime, Primary School results etc etc-I could go on for pages- have woefully passed them by when the Government should have been hammered. Gordon Brown claims that none of these problems is down to him and people are believing it!

The impression being given is that most Conservative MPs have safe seats, good second incomes, so why should they bother to win elections? Certainly none of them has displayed any determination to do so.

The party is now in real peril of losing, not only the elction but the bright new intake of MPs who are in marginal seats. This would leave the Parliamentary Party as a rump of the old guard- the dinosaurs - that would be goodbye to bringing the party into the 21st century- Heaven help us

We deserve better than this!

[Bruce Hulmes / England 27 Sep 2007 12:40:59]

Another second generation East European go's to Labour.
Why not change their name to the Scottish and Polish advancement party. People should do some home work on the people they propose to vote for.

[Khalid 27 Sep 2007 12:23:12]

It really does make you wonder as to whether the defection is purely on the grounds that they want something legitimate to do in life or whether they are just attempting to grab headlines. Nevertheless, I’m sure Her Majesty the “Queen”s Opposition wont be too worried as “Another One Bites The Dust”!

[mike,spain 27 Sep 2007 12:07:52]

When will it be that New Labour change their name to New Conservatives ?

The difference between these 2 parties is now so fine that Brown (by design) has removed any possibility of the Tories getting elected as there is no space for so called "Blue Water".

The defectors are already seeing this and moving across as further proof of this strategy.

So the electorate have a choice of new Tory or old Tory. If Brown wished to move so far over to the right its about time he went to the country as this deception has gone on long enough. He has even started wearing blue ties.

MP's are power hungry and Brown will move where ever he feels he can remain in power.

This is a deceptive PM, he says one thing but does another.

The best thing the other parties can do is stop any policy announcements until the election therefore drying out Browns ability to steal anything that he can use to hang onto power.

I have a feeling that eventually a new Labour party will be created to the left of Brown and Brown will become the next Tory party (centre left), but of course he would never admit this.

As for his promis to listen to the people, this was clearly demonstrated when he avoided the pension demonstrators this week. Weasel words.He fools nobody.

[chris, woodbridge 27 Sep 2007 11:50:54]

Just shows that they were never real Conservatives in the first place if they are prepared to defect to the Labour Party. Its all probably about self interest any way. If they had a strong majority at the last election, most will lose their seats in the next election as they no longer will be able to stand as Tory candidates. Good riddence I say.

[Peter, Fife 27 Sep 2007 11:46:44]

Seems there is going to be more than Blackpool rock missing from this year’s Conservative Conference.

David Cameron's ban on Blackpool rock with his name running through it was said to be because "it is not that type of Conference" so what type of conference is it going to be, an Old Etonian one?

Seems the song from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, ‘The Candy Man Can’ may only be 100% correct in relation to David Cameron’s title of ‘Conservative Confectioner’ but not in relation to the numbers of MPs he can muster at conference; will there be any more defections before or during conference?