The recent defection of two maverick Tory peers (Lord Pearson of Rannoch and the magnificently named Lord Willoughby de Broke) to UKIP led to some rather extravagant claims that the Tories were about to haemorrhage support to UKIP. Lord Pearson added that his defection was in protest at the Conservatives' lack of a "sufficiently Eurosceptic policy".

However, although it is true that a section of the Tory party are angry at David Cameron's failure to deliver on the only promise he made during his party's 2005 leadership race - namely, withdrawal from the centre-right European People's Party grouping in the European Parliament - the reality is that more Conservatives have been unhappy with their party's hostility to Europe.

This has been reflected in the pattern of defections of Tory politicians during the past decade or so with far more defections from disillusioned pro-Europeans than Europhobes. Whilst two unelected peers have gone to UKIP, no fewer than 12 elected MPs and MEPs have switched their allegiance to Labour or the Liberal Democrats. Furthermore, during William Hague's tenure as Conservative leader, two of its MEPs (John Stevens and Brendan Donnelly) and a former candidate for the party leadership - Sir Anthony Mayer - set up a breakaway Pro-Euro Conservative group in protest at their party's rabid Euroscepticism.

Switching to Labour were MPs Peter Temple Morris, Alan Howarth, Shaun Woodward, Peter Thurnham and, most recently, the highly respected former Minister Robert Jackson. The latter defected to Labour shortly before the 2005 election in view of his party's "dangerous" views on Europe, adding that "the Conservative Party's hostility to Europe has hardened to the point at which it advocates the unilateral denunciation of Britain's treaty obligations." Shaun Woodward and Alan Howarth have since served as government Ministers since abandoning a party that had become increasingly right-wing and extreme on Europe.

The Liberal Democrats have also been a haven for Europhile Tories. This trend was started by Emma Nicholson's defection in 1995 and she has since been followed by Keith Raffan MP (who later served as a Liberal Democrat member of the Scottish Parliament between 1998 and 2002), John Stevens MEP, Bill Newton Dunn MEP, Hugh Dykes (now Lord Dykes and a front bench Lib Dem spokesman on foreign affairs), Peter Price MEP and James Moorhouse MEP.

Moreover, UKIP's failure to attract Conservative politicians is not because of a lack of effort. UKIP has assiduously courted defectors, sending emails to local councillors of all parties and has written to all MPs in a desperate bid to attract new supporters. They have consistently attempted to convince disillusioned Tories to defect. Although some Tories don't hesitate to work closely with UKIP (to the extent that their loyalty to the Conservative party is sometimes questioned) Bill Cash, Douglas Carswell and Philip Davies in the House of Commons and Roger Helmer and Dan Hannan in the European Parliament, have not wanted to risk losing their seats.

Comparing the number and abilities of the pro-European defectors with those attracted by UKIP, which, incidentally, include disgraced former MP Piers Merchant who is now UKIP's Chief Executive (!), merely reveals the hollowness of Farage's claim to have attracted "many senior Conservatives".