Tebbit calls for Lib Dem punishment in Oldham
By politics.co.uk staff
Norman Tebbit has reinforced his reputation as a thorn in the coalition’s side by calling for voters to punish the Lib Dems in Oldham.
Speaking about the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election, which concludes next week, the Conservative MP said he hoped his coalition partners were pushed into fourth place, behind Ukip.
“The prime minister, so it seems, is anxious that the Lib Dems should not be humiliated, as the national polls suggest might be the case,” Mr Tebbit wrote in his Daily Telegraph column.
“So anxious that he has set a precedent, which some of the rest of us might like to follow, by wishing the candidate of another party well before offering any support to that of his own.”
He added: “Of course, as one who believes that the people of this kingdom should govern themselves, I have an instinctive sympathy with the Ukip candidate and I hope that at the very least he puts the Lib Dem into fourth place.”
The famously right-wing backbencher then went on to insist that a Lib Dem win in the seat would force the coalition further to the left, and cement a “new, modern, compassionate [Conservative] party”.
He wrote: “A Lib Dem win would tilt the coalition even farther left and away from Conservative policies.
“A Labour win would give the wild men of the TUC great encouragement to launch a campaign to ursurp the government by a campaign of industrial action.”
Mr Tebbit, who is well-loved by the Tory right, has not tried to hide his dislike of the coalition arrangement and is viewed as a prominent trouble-maker on the government backbenches.
