Election ‘pact’ is danger for Tories, says David Davis

New dawn: David Cameron welcomes Nick Clegg into 10 Downing Street
12 April 2012

Senior Tory David Davis today warned against "dangerous" plans for a 2015 general election pact between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

The former shadow home secretary hit out after Nick Boles, one of David Cameron's most trusted confidants, called for the coalition parties not to stand against each other in future Westminster elections.

Mr Boles, MP for Grantham and Stamford and a leading moderniser, said a formal electoral pact would also require each of the parties to urge supporters to use their possible second preferences to back their coalition partners.

But Mr Davis told the Standard the plan was impractical because the Government's planned boundary changes would make it extremely difficult to decide which seats were nominally Tory or Lib-Dem in 2015.

The spat came as the coalition pushed its Fixed Term Parliaments Bill — another fast-tracked piece of legislation that has upset some Tories — through the Commons today.

Writing in The Times, Mr Boles said his experience as the founder of the liberal think-tank Policy Exchange had confirmed his belief that the Conservatives and Lib-Dems had much in common.

But Mr Davis said: "It will actually add force to the argument that this is what those on the Left of the party wanted all along."

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