Howard defends Flight sacking
Conservative leader Michael Howard has defended his decision to oust Sussex MP Howard Flight, saying he was acting in the interests of his party and the country.
Mr Howard said the decision to de-select Mr Flight as a Conservative candidate at the forthcoming general election had been an “unpleasant one”, but the Tory leader said he could not afford to keep an MP who misrepresented the party’s plans.
He announced on Friday that Mr Flight would no longer be a Conservative candidate after the Arundel and South Downs MP gave a speech hinting that his party were hiding the true scale of planned spending cuts to win the election.
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Howard described Mr Flight’s gaffe as a “terrible let-down”.
“It’s a terrible let-down when someone goes and behaves like this,” he told the paper.
“What I can’t have is someone misrepresenting my view, misrepresenting what we do in government and suggesting that we say one thing in private and another thing in public. That’s not the way I do politics.”
In an attempt to get his party’s campaign back on track following the row, Mr Howard announced the Conservatives would be providing more help for parents paying for childcare.
But Mr Flight has refused to go quietly following the public spending gaffe and insists that any decision over his political future should be made by members of his Tory local party.
“Constitutionally, an executive committee meeting needs to be held, and potentially even an extraordinary general meeting, at which I should be called to account and they should decide what they want to do,” Mr Flight told the BBC on Saturday.
“You can’t do it from a diktat from Central Office. “
“They (the local association) may well decide that they don’t want me but it’s got to be done properly,” Mr Flight added.
The MP has refused to stand as an independent candidate at the expected May general election, saying he did not believe in “empty gestures”.
