British Tories suspend MP who supported their rivals

British MP Lucy Allan, who had announced she would not stand in the British general election, was suspended from the ruling Conservative Party on Monday after supporting the candidate of the right-wing Reform UK party.

This is another setback for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who has been campaigning since announcing a general election last week. Dozens of Conservative MPs have already announced they will not stand in the July 4 election.

Allan, 59, a former Conservative MP for the English town of Telford and an MP for nine years, said on social media that she supports Alan Adams of the Reform Party as the next MP for her constituency.

A Conservative Party spokesman said she had been suspended from the party with “immediate effect”, adding that “a vote for reform is a vote for (opposition Labour leader) Keir Starmer”.

A poll conducted by More in Common and published a day after Sunak’s election call on Wednesday showed Labour supported by 44 percent and the Conservatives by 27 percent, with the right-wing Reform UK Party on 10 percent.

Earlier this year, former Conservative Party deputy leader Lee Anderson, who had been suspended from the party over allegations of Islamophobia, defected to Reform, whose honorary chairman is Brexit activist Nigel Farage. (Reuters)