Ex-Conservative cabinet minister Stephen Dorrell becomes latest to join Lib Dems

A former Conservative cabinet minister has joined the Liberal Democrats, in the latest blow to Remainers in the governing party.

Pro-European Stephen Dorrell said both the Tories and Labour were ‘disintegrating’ in slow motion and that there was now ‘no time’ to argue a ‘liberal’, anti-Brexit case from within the parties.

Mr Dorrell, who defected to Change UK earlier this year, served in John Major’s cabinet in the 1990s, notably as health secretary.

Writing in the Sunday Times, the former Tory MP of 36 years said both main parties were ‘retreating into mean-spirited factionalism’.

Mr Dorrell, who also chairs the European Movement pressure group, urged other Conservatives to follow his lead, suggesting ‘Liberal Democrats, liberal Conservatives and social democrats’ had much more in common than with the leadership of the two main parties.

He said joining the Lib Dems was a chance to realign politics and create a ‘big liberal tent’.

It follows the decision to strip 21 Tories – including two former chancellors – of the Conservative whip when they rebelled against the party to try to stop no deal.

And earlier this week, the former Conservative leadership candidate Rory Stewart defected from the party to run as an independent candidate in the London Mayoral election, just months after campaigning to become a Tory prime minister.

A string of defections from the party have left Prime Minister Boris Johnson without a majority and a hugely divided party.

Criticising Labour and the Conservatives for no longer representing ‘coalitions’ of different views, he added: ‘The traditional parties are both committed to carrying through different versions of Brexit, but neither can show why any version of Brexit offers a better deal for Britain than the one we have now.’