Kirkbride ‘pushed out’ by Respect

The departures today of Julie Kirkbride and Margaret Moran should not be confused. Moran was facing expulsion anyway by Labour's 'star chamber' over the public outrage at her £22,500 claim for dry rot treatment on a so-called ‘second home’ situated 100 miles from her Luton South constituency.

But senior Tories are left feeling sick to the stomach at the forced exit of Julie Kirkbride whom they believe has become the victim of a media witch-hunt whipped up by the Respect Party and the hard left in her Bromsgrove constituency.

David Cameron's office has remained silent about the Respect link. Kirkbride says she took her own decision and was not pushed, but few will believe that Tory Central Office was not behind her decision to save the party more damage.

Today many Conservatives are wringing their hands at her departure - among them the Tory boys who were like bees round a honeypot when, before she became an MP in 1997, Julie was a young political reporter for the Daily Telegraph, visiting the Members' Lobby of the Commons in her short leather skirts.

Her allies say her position was made untenable by the drip-drip of poison against her in recent days, including the disclosure that her brother had been allowed to live in her Bromsgrove home, mortgaged with taxpayers' money, because he looked after her eight-year-old son.

Former Tory Northern Ireland minister Richard Needham, who resigned from the Thatcher Government after being taped describing Lady Thatcher as "a cow" on his mobile phone, is one of the few senior Tories to have jumped to Julie Kirkbride's defence. He accused the media of a cover-up over the Respect link with the campaign to remove her, because it does not fit into their 'Tory sleaze' agenda.

In an open letter, Needham said: "Almost every Sky and BBC news report involves sending a 'team' to discover what the locals in Bromsgrove are saying about Julie. This entails interviewing those signing a 'Julie Must Go' petition being organised by George Galloway's Respect Party. Not that I have heard that mentioned by Sky or the BBC."

Louise Marnell, chair of the campaign which is organising a petition against Julie Kirkbride in her constituency, speaking on BBC Radio's Jeremy Vine Show denied any connection between Respect and her campaign. She flatly denied that Mark Anthony France, who has been interviewed frequently on Sky News collecting signatures for the Julie Must Go! petition, is a member of Respect.

Yet Tory Blogger Iain Dale, also interviewed on the show, said: "He (Mark Anthony France) is a leading light of the Respect Party. There are several people in Respect who are leading this campaign of vilification against a very honourable woman."

Louise Marnell countered: "I am not in any way attached to Respect. Mark is not in any way attached to Respect. He is standing in the local elections as an Independent candidate."

And yet the Respect website for Bromsgrove clearly describes Mark Anthony France as a "West Midlands Respect activist". He is said to have joined Respect after leaving the loopy left Socialist Labour Party led by former miners' leader and old-time Communist, Arthur Scargill. ·