Loic Rich joins the Conservatives

This week’s papers have carried the news that Loic Rich, who was MK’s candidate in the Truro and Falmouth seat at the last General Election, has joined the Conservatives.

He left MK in April and was reported in the West Briton stating that he was “leaving for personal reasons” and was “less interested in party politics.”

And yet, this week, he described MK as a “deficit-denying party,” but praised the Conservatives for acting in “an extraordinarily pragmatic and sincere way.” He added that: “I found it very frustrating being in a party that, along with the opposition parties, seemed to be in deliberate denial of the UK's economic and social needs.”

He even told the BBC’s Graham Smith: “I do, really, genuinely believe in what the Conservative Party is doing. I know many people think the Tories are the party for the Home Counties but that's just not true. The Conservatives really care about Cornwall."

A lot of us are very surprised. Loic’s recent comments bear no relation to the views he expressed when was an MK member, both publicly and privately.

I will acknowledge that Loic worked extremely hard for MK when he was the parliamentary candidate.

But many MK members also worked hard to support his campaign and to support him as an individual, and feel very let down at his sudden shift in political allegiance.