Stephen Phillips: ‘Conservative’ is no longer a label with which I can live
Vox Political has had a chance to see ex-Tory MP Stephen Phillips’s resignation letter, and it is damning.
In it, he tells the chairperson of his local Conservative association he has “irreconcilable” policy differences with Theresa May’s Tory government.
He writes: “To identify three areas in particular: its failure to appreciate the constitutional necessity of properly consulting Parliament with regard to leaving the European Union; the continued shirking of our responsibility for unaccompanied child refugees who have been forced to flee war and conflict; and the way in which international aid is now apparently to be used other than to assist some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people.”
He noticeably omits any reference to ill-treatment of the poorest and most vulnerable people here in the UK – but concludes: “Some will label me a quitter or, no doubt, worse. Those are labels with which I can live. The label Conservative no longer is.”
Stephen Phillips: No longer a Conservative MP.
Commentators on Twitter and elsewhere have been quick to point out what this actually says about Mr Phillips. For example, Bonnie Greer tweeted: “#Tory who just couldn’t stand being a #Tory anymore. Otherwise known as ‘Man With Conscience’.”
Mr Phillips said he had to resign as an MP because “I take the view that it would be wrong simply to resign the whip and remain an MP. The majority of the people in the constituency voted to be represented by a Conservative. That choice should be respected.”
It is to be hoped that, in the light of his principled decision, the majority of people in Mr Phillips’s constituency decide they no longer wish to live with the label “Conservative” either.
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Further to what I said in your previous post regarding the Hon Stephen Phillips’ resignation, all I can say is, I have regained some respect for the position of “Member of Parliament”, especially from from one with a conscience.
says it all really about his omission of the poorest and most vunerable in OUR SOCIETY.
God a Con with a concious …. he would have had to go anyway they would soon flushed him out anyway. Pity his issues were not nearer home created by his
own party and its total lack of compasssion in fact his issues for leaving were pretty weak and he would have been better placed having a strong voice within the Cons.
He’s the sort of Tory a lot of undecided people might well have voted for – Politicians with a conscience are thin on the ground.
Careful what you say, this man could be shot for desertion.