I wonder how warmly grassroots Labour Party members will be welcoming Tory defector Robert Jackson.

Not just taking into account the integrity of a man who can be out canvassing for the Tories on a Saturday and announcing his defection the next day, and then the childish timing of his defection to cause maximum damage to the party that’s given him a free ride (a less than 50% voting record in eight years isn’t exactly the sign of a driven, committed politician) - there’s also his voting record:

Against the ban on fox-hunting but for the war in Iraq (now there’s a man with his priorities in the right order). He’s for an all-appointed House of Lords and against an elected one. He doesn’t want homosexual and unmarried people adopting children (but strangely voted in favour of the homosexual age of consent being lowered to 16). He’s also a strategic abstainer.

Tony’s going to love him. Robert Jackson is such the quintessential slippery New Labour pol, it’s to be wondered what he was doing in the Conservative Party in the first place.