Senior Tories warned against loyal voters decamping to the more right wing anti-Europe UKIP Party after the drubbing they and their LibDem Coalition partners received in the Local elections. But fears that same-sex marriage be a victim of their electoral disaster grew yesterday after right wingers within the party urged a return to traditional ‘core’ Conservative values.
Tory Defence Minister Gerald Howarth the Coalition’s stance on same-sex marriage and Lords reform as two policies they needed to ditch in order to maintain popular leadership among the party faithful. Centrist Tory MP Gary Streeter and urged a move away from LibDem influence over the Conservative mission.
Jeremy Browne, the Liberal Democrat Foreign Office minister, countered that the Coalition needed to cultivate support in the middle ground rather than chase right wing votes.