PM David Cameron loses second MP to anti-EU party

A lawmaker from Britain’s ruling Conservative party defected to the anti-EU United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) on Saturday, dealing a blow to Prime Minister David Cameron on the eve of his party’s annual conference. 

In more bad news for Cameron, an opinion poll showed voters view him slightly less favourably than UKIP leader Nigel Farage, and a junior minister resigned over a story in a Sunday newspaper that he had sent sexually explicit pictures of himself to an undercover reporter. 

The defection of Mark Reckless, the member of parliament for Rochester and Strood in southern England, is the second in just over four weeks, and comes eight months before a national election in which UKIP could threaten Cameron’s re-election chances. 

Reckless told UKIP’s annual conference that as a Conservative politician he felt he had not been able to keep his promises to voters, one of which was to get the country out of the European Union. ‘People feel ignored, taken for granted, over-taxed, over-regulated, ripped off and lied to,’ Reckless said. ‘I do feel that the leadership of the Conservative party is part of the problem that is holding our country back.’ UKIP wants an immediate British withdrawal from the EU and an end to what it calls an ‘open door’ immigration policy. It has no seats in the British parliament but won May’s European elections in Britain after taking votes from the Conservatives.