Karim crossing the floor

Interesting to see Saj Karim's defection from the Lib Dems to the Tories this week, which may not have been for entirely altruistic reasons.

It appears that rather than a principled decision, Saj's defection is the result of a fit of pique after only securing second place on the Liberal Democrat list for the next European elections in 2009. The maverick Chris Davies took 63% of the votes cast by party members across the region, and Saj Karim was the best of the rest. The North-West is set to lose one of its nine seats at the next elections due to enlargement, putting Karim in danger of losing his seat. One can safely assume that the Conservatives will ensure that this does not happen now (to the annoyance of other Tory hopefuls in the North-West, including former MEP Jackie Foster).

Still, I presume that Saj, who strongly supported the constitution, will set about converting the likes of Dan Hannan, Chris Heaton-Harris and Martin Callanan of the benefits of Britain's EU membership and will convince his new colleagues to support the Reform Treaty!