Mark Reckless MP: We’re not saying the People’s Pledge for an EU referendum is the only one he’s ever signed, but we can think of at least one more that might have done his career some good.

It seems Mark Reckless has blindsided us all by defecting to UKIP before his ex-colleague Philip Hollobone had the chance.

Perhaps he didn’t want to be seen as jumping on the UKIP bandwagon, as he most likely would if Hollobone had gone first – but he still looks like a rat leaving the sinking Tory ship.

Unfettered by party restraints, he was able to admit what most of us have known for some times – that the Conservative-led Coalition’s relentless pursuit of budget cuts for their own sake had produced absolutely no economic benefit at all.

“We will see in this parliament in just five years a Conservative-led government adding more to our national debt than Labour in 13 years,” he said.

Reckless, rated by ConservativeHome as one of the most rebellious Tory MPs in 2012, is another near-perfect fit for UKIP. While his demands for the deportation of Abu Hamza and Abu Qatada may have been welcomed by moderate voters, his Euroscepticism is less likely to cut the ice.

He is strident in his belief that the UK should leave the European Union, and also wants out of the European Court of Human Rights, claiming that it erodes British freedom and democracy.

One has to wonder whose freedom he meant. He certainly enjoys his own – in 2010 he had to apologise for missing a vote on the Budget after having too much to drink (probably in one of the House of Commons’ taxpayer-subsidised bars).

One may conclude that he is a drunken bigot who wants to run rampant over everybody else’s human rights.

If so, then there’s no reason for David Cameron to be concerned.

From his point of view, the Conservative Party has just lost some dead weight.

Follow me on Twitter: @MidWalesMike

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