Dominic Grieve, David Gauke and Anne Milton face a big challenge to keep their seats come 12 December. The trio were among 21 Tory MPs who lost the whip when they backed the Cooper-Letwin bill back in September. Last night, Grieve, Gauke and Milton teamed up with the former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine to hold an event in Grieve’s Buckinghamshire constituency of Beaconsfield to rally against the party they once called home.
While the odds might be against them in their bids to retain their seats as independents, the three candidates are optimistic. They embraced their newfound independence, telling voters they could ‘make the difference’ and generally talking up their ability to surmount their former Tory majorities (each of the candidates previously occupied Tory strongholds, with Grieve now fighting against his old majority of 24,500).
A key part of their strategy is going after Boris Johnson. The candidates spoke passionately about their unionism, arguing that the PM was putting the nation at risk.
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