\u201cThere is no easy way to describe joining a new political party, because it\u2019s like finding a new family,\u201d he said. \u201cI was brought up in a Conservative association. I was the local Tory boy. So it\u2019s great, but odd.\u201d<\/p>\n
Butler is one of several youthful former Tories who have publicly defected to Britain\u2019s third party and are in the process of setting up a new group: the One Nation Liberals. It\u2019s a growing group, with other potential defectors believed to be waiting to see if they can survive in Kemi Badenoch\u2019s increasingly rightwing party.<\/p>\n
Butler has been joined by Josh Bancroft, a former Tory councillor on Cannock Chase council, who left the party to join the Lib Dems earlier this month. \u201cModerates like me have been forced out of the big tent over the past few years,\u201d he said. \u201cMy politics haven\u2019t changed, but the party has.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 26-year-old said moderates looking for the exit have grown in number since Badenoch embarked on a purge of the Conservative parliamentary party<\/a>.<\/p>\n In July, the Tory leader warned that anyone who supported net zero targets or Britain\u2019s membership of the European convention on human rights would be blocked from standing as a candidate in the next election. The former minister Gavin Barwell lost the whip<\/a>, and another former cabinet member, Grant Shapps, was blocked from standing again<\/a> for the party.<\/p>\n Ed Davey taking part in a Q&A session with the journalist Carolyn Quinn at the Lib Dems conference on Sunday. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau\/PA<\/p>\n \u201cThe Conservatives<\/a> have taken leaps to the right and left me and millions of voters behind,\u201d Bancroft added. \u201cThe Liberal Democrats can be and should be their new political home.\u201d<\/p>\n Bancroft and Butler have been welcomed with open arms into the Liberal ranks, with one MP joking that Badenoch had become the Lib Dems\u2019 most effective recruiter. During a Q&A on the first full day of the conference, party leader Ed Davey<\/a> repeatedly mentioned Badenoch, referencing her decision to freeze out members and MPs who support net zero policies.<\/p>\n \u201cUnlike Kemi Badenoch, who thinks there wasn\u2019t a problem with this summer\u2019s heatwaves, we actually realise you have to take action on climate change and we\u2019re leading that debate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Despite being stuck at about 11% in national polling, many Liberal Democrat activists and MPs in Brighton are talking with atypical swagger about cementing the foundations of the so-called orange wall. They point to the 72 seats they won in the last election, making them the largest third party in British politics for over a century. And of the 27 seats where the Lib Dems came second in 2024<\/a>, 20 were taken by the Conservatives.<\/p>\n
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