The Tory Party is angry. Making my way into the conference centre, every Tory Minister and MP I bumped into wanted to vent about Mark Reckless. Unlike with Douglas Carswell, there is no personal warmth towards him and there is a real sense that Reckless lied repeatedly about his intentions.
Grant Shapps gave voice to that frustration in his speech. In an extended attack on Reckless, he declared ‘We have been let down by somebody who has repeatedly lied to his constituents and to you’. He then added, ‘He lied and he lied and he lied’.
We can expect to hear plenty more of these attacks. One Tory Minister told me that Reckless is temperamentally unsuited to a tough by-election and so they will keep going at him.
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