The Tories have recently announced their election slogan, “Vote for Change” – in other words, “it’s time for a change, it’s our turn”. This slogan (along with their much parodied first attempt at a poster) aims to emphasise the change that has occurred within the party – their leader is trying to convince people that they are not the “nasty” Tories of yesteryear.
Last Sunday’s Observer called into question the extent to which the Tories have shed their “nasty party” past; today this post sheds new light on allegations made against the Tories on Thurrock Council last year and also calls into question the extent to which Cameron has managed to change his party.
In March 2009 Cllr Terry Hipsey, leader of the Tory group on Thurrock Council, made a shock defection to Labour, leaving the Tory group leaderless and bringing the two groups neck and neck: 23 Labour Councillors, 23 Conservative Councillors, 2 Independent and 1 BNP. In order to maintain power the Tories were left relying on the support of the BNP councillor as the two Independents abstained from voting. Not a position that any party would want to find itself in.
It emerged that Cllr Hipsey made the decision to defect following an uncomfortable meeting in which he says certain members of the Tory group discussed the possibility of a loose ‘Tory-BNP electoral pact’ in the lead up to the May 2008 Local Elections. He says the suggested pact involved the Tories not standing candidates in certain wards that were marginal Labour-BNP seats in order to keep Labour out of power. Cllr Hipsey has a copy of the minutes from the meeting in which this unholy alliance was discussed and, though the Tory group have denied its existence, to this day the Tories have yet to provide alternative minutes.
Prior to this incident the Tories had installed the BNP councillor on the general services committee (the most powerful committee on the council) rather than one of the two Independent councillors. Although the Tories were obliged to appoint one of the three councillors who do not belong to either of the main two parties they could have given it to either of the two Independent Councillors. As well as handing a prime committee position to the BNP, the Tory Council made no obvious attempts to prevent the BNP from using a building owned by the council to launch their European Election campaign in May 2009.
Tory Stories caught up with Cllr Hipsey to find out whether he bought his allegations to the attention of CCHQ and what, if any, action was taken by the party at a national level to investigate the claims he had made. Cllr Hipsey responded as follows:
“Eric Pickles sent an email round when we first got into power warning us that any cooperation with BNP would result in expulsion from the Conservative Party. When I heard about the proposed pact I reported the issue to the South Basildon and East Thurrock Conservative Association Chairperson. She passed my concerns up to Conservative Central Office via email and followed it up with a phone call. I never heard anything back from Central Office.”
Change can be a powerful message, as we saw with Obama’s campaign, but it needs to be backed up with action. What action did CCHQ take to investigate Cllr Hipsey’s claims and, if an investigation occurred, what were the findings?
