UKIP now have their first MP, former Conservative MP Bob Spink, who resigned/was kicked out of the Conservative Party last month. I doubt that he will be missed much, if the claim that "you won't find many tears being shed over this in the Conservative Party - more like the sound of popping corks" is true.

When an MP defects, a by-election should be held. Not if they move from a party to none, but if they move from one party to another. The political system in this country means that although votes are cast for individuals, the vast, vast majority of people cast their votes for the party, not the person. There are few MPs who have a personal vote. The same as Quentin Davies should have.

Now it comes down to the next general election and how much of a personal vote Bob Spink has, and how much it comes down to the colour of the rosette you pin on the donkey. Somehow I doubt that the UKIP purple will get as many votes as the Conservative's blue.

Is it defection season or something? After Quentin Davies defected to Labour a couple of weeks ago, five Southall councillors have defected from Labour to the Conservatives and given their support to the Conservative candidate in the Southall by-election, Tony Lit. The defection of five councillors in one go has to be a blow to Labour, no matter what.

The defections just keep on coming - two Lib Dem councillors in Colchester have joined the Conservatives, giving them control of the Borough Council for the first time in twenty years. At the last local elections, the Conservatives were by far the largest party, and required only one extra councillor to take control - which they now have. This is a blow to the Lib Dem Colchester MP Bob Russell [a Lib Dem spokesman on Defence], who has been blamed for causing the defection with "[h]is continual interference with the Lib Dem group on the council [which] makes me feel I can no longer be part of it." And this from a man who has been Russell's personal agent in the general elections of 1997 and 2001.

Will defection season stay open for much longer? Will we see any more defections? Any MP who defects - to any party - should have to fight a by-election, but with councillors I just don't think it is worth the cost - local government just isn't important enough to hold continual elections over, considering the cost of holding the election.

Sources: BBC, East Anglian Daily Times

Quentin Davies, MP for Grantham and Stamford, has defected from the Conservative Party to Labour, on the day before Gordon Brown becomes Prime Minister. In his letter of resignation to David Cameron, he wrote:

"Under your leadership the Conservative Party appears to me to have ceased collectively to believe in anything, or to stand for anything...
It has no bedrock. It exists on shifting sands. A sense of mission has been replaced by a PR agenda...
Although you have many positive qualities you have three, superficiality, unreliability and an apparent lack of any clear convictions, which in my view ought to exclude you from the position of national leadership to which you aspire and which it is the presumed purpose of the Conservative Party to achieve."

I do not know anything about Quentin Davies - indeed, I had never heard of him until his defection today, so I won't be commenting on him as a person at all. I also agree with Bel that Conservatives should not set out to rubbish the man's personality, as that helps no-one at all, even though I agree with Iain Dale that Quentin is being a disloyal s***. His defection is undoubtedly a blow to Cameron and the Conservatives, as all defections are. Especially coming as it is at a time when defections should be going the other way - but that doesn't mean that it is necessarily a bad thing in the long term.

What intrigues me more is what will happen now. Theoretically, elected as he was on a Conservative ticket under a Conservative manifesto, he should resign and hold a by-election in his constituency - but he was already declared that he won't:

"I will consider my future as an MP before the next election, but in the meantime, I will continue to represent the constituents of Grantham and Stamford in the way I have done from the Opposition benches, always seeking to put their interests and the national interests before any narrow partisan considerations."

No, you should hold a by-election. The political system in this country means that although votes are cast for individuals, the vast, vast majority of people cast their votes for the party, not the person. There are few MPs who have a personal vote. As such, Quentin should have to fight a by-election before he can be a Labour MP. This should apply to all defections of elected personnel, especially MPs - whichever party they are defecting to and from.

UPDATE: Quentin Davies' Chairman also says that he should resign and fight a by-election. There is also now the obligatory Facebook group: When MPs defect there should be a by-election.

Image from ConservativeHome
Sources: BBC, The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian