Tebbit: I don't blame defectors

Former Conservative party chairman Lord Tebbit has said he could "hardly blame" former Tory voters who defected to the UK Independence Party (Ukip).

He condemned attacks on Ukip by senior Conservatives including Cabinet minister Ken Clarke as a "stupid" way of winning back voters who had deserted the party.

Lord Tebbit predicted that David Cameron's party would suffer a "drubbing" in Thursday's local elections, with "substantial numbers" of supporters shifting their loyalties to Ukip.

In an attack on the current Tory leadership, Lord Tebbit said: "Of course it may well be that many former Conservative voters are so fed up with the Cameron coalition that they will turn to Ukip as the party which comes closest to a traditional Conservative agenda, and a reasoned position on the European issue. One can hardly blame them for that."

In his blog on the Telegraph website he said he would back Conservative candidates in his Suffolk council, but suggested voters in other areas should vote tactically to block Labour. He said the rise in support for Nigel Farage's Ukip was "no longer just about the damage that the Brussels high command is inflicting on this country".

"Ukip is now in the process of becoming a party with a complete agenda for government," he said.

He suggested that voters in areas with a Labour councillor should consider backing Ukip.

"If you have a Labour councillor then I suggest that the best vote is the one most likely to replace him or her with either a Conservative, Ukip or sound independent one."Tory grandee Mr Clarke branded Ukip members "clowns" in an interview on Sunday and in 2006 Mr Cameron categorised it as a party of "fruitcakes and loonies and closet racists".

Lord Tebbit said: "The intentions of many one-time Tory voters will have been reinforced by Ken Clarke's singularly ill-judged rant calling them 'clowns'.

"That has to be as stupid a way of persuading defectors to return to the Conservative fold as Cameron's rant about closet racists and fruitcakes."