JAMIE Reed, who quit as the MP for Copeland in December last year, has revealed that he was asked to defect to the Conservatives.
The 43-year-old resigned last month to take up a new job as a head of development and community relations at Sellafield Ltd.
However, in an unexpected twist, the former Labour MP revealed that he was poached by the Tories in a blog post on Politics Home which was published yesterday.
He said: "Labour is the greatest and most effective vehicle for economic and social progress our country has ever seen.
"You don’t have to sympathise with Labour politics to accept this as a fact and so being asked to cross the floor to become a Tory MP was one of the strangest episodes of my parliamentary career.
"Taken to dinner by two Tory grandees – both good men, generous to a fault (they paid) – I was flattered to learn of my outstanding qualities, delighted to hear of how much the country needed men like me and how it would be nothing short of a national catastrophe, should I not deploy my considerable talents on the Treasury benches.
"There are plenty of Tory MPs with whom I am on friendly terms. For fear of embarrassing them, they will remain nameless.
"Yet my response to this approach was primeval and immediate. “Well…gentlemen…I’m genuinely happy to learn that you hold me in such high regard…but can you imagine my embarrassment?""
Mr Reed also commented on the highs he has experienced over his 12-year career as an MP as he declared his ambitions for the future.
He said: "I have delivered to my constituents that which I promised: a new hospital, secondary schools, town centre investments, the protection of jobs at Sellafield – the constituency’s largest employer – and most of all, built the foundations for my community to become one of the fastest growing parts of the UK economy.
"Writing new nuclear policy with Tony Blair’s policy unit, securing my constituency as a site for new nuclear reactors and working with successive government to ensure that the policy remains the same will be transformative for Copeland."
READ MORE: Conservatives select candidate for Copeland by-election
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