by James Heaven... a member of the Totnes Conservatives and spokesman for the 50 Conservative signatories to Sarah Wollaston’s deselection petition.

When I heard that Dr Sarah Wollaston MP had crossed the floor to join The Independent Group I was unsurprised.

Having been elected in an open primary, Wollaston has always considered herself an ‘independent’ – less aligned with Conservative Party policy than other MPs.

Although she assumed a Tory safe seat and stood on the same manifesto as her colleagues, her social media posts have long sounded more like the ramblings of an opposition MP than a genuine Conservative.

In better days she was a unifying presence in our constituency. She voted for the referendum, to trigger Article 50 and supported the EU Withdrawal Bill.

Although the South Hams region narrowly came out for Remain, Dr Wollaston’s constituency, Totnes, voted leave by 54 per cent; and in the subsequent general election, she enjoyed a landslide Conservative victory, with the Liberal Democrats slipping to third place on a pro-EU manifesto.

Despite promising to honour the result of the 2016 referendum, the largest democratic exercise in this country’s history, she chose to turn her back on the result and her 2017 manifesto commitments. It was becoming increasingly obvious that Dr Wollaston, with scant regard for party policy or the wishes of her constituents, was doing considerable damage to Britain’s negotiating position with the EU and even democracy itself. She now seems to think that breaking solemn promises is the new politics this constituency is crying out for.

The nonsense about the Conservative Party being taken over by extremists shows just how out of touch she has become. There is no majority in the country, let alone her party, for her demands whether that be for a second referendum or the “Brexit in name only” Labour alternative.

Dr Wollaston speaks of the Conservative Party being hijacked by ‘right-wing values’ yet by any standard, our policies are moderate with taxes, for example, remaining at all-time highs. What does this extremism consist of? Why, a desire to honour the result of the 2016 referendum. By that measure, most of us are extremists.

Broad-based parties like our Conservative Party need a collegiate approach, especially when the government is nursing a slim majority.

Yet Dr Wollaston has developed a reputation for being unreliable and unhelpful – her political capital at Westminster spent. With Dr Wollaston becoming an increasingly ineffective MP, our constituency needs change.

Before she announced her defection, I joined a group of 50 Conservative members calling for a vote of no confidence in Dr Wollaston. She resigned the whip two days later, revealing her well-developed plan to go. Although we saw it coming there is a heartfelt feeling of disappointment across the party. It should never have come to this.

By all accounts, Dr Wollaston did a good job as chairman of the Health Select Committee, yet it seems that poor judgement will dog her political career.

In 2011, Dr Wollaston sponsored a Bill calling for MPs who cross the floor to automatically face a by-election. Yet, in a further act of extraordinary hypocrisy, Wollaston does not intend to seek a new mandate for herself. *

Dr Wollaston will always be welcomed back by her friends in the Conservative Party. But it’s time to find a new representative that we can all have confidence in for the future – and begin to restore the trust in our local politics and democracy.

* Responding to the claims regarding the Bill concerning by-elections, Dr Wollaston told us: “Ten-Minute Rule Bills are a mechanism for a member to debate an issue in Parliament, not an actual Bill. They do not become law unless a bill is produced and they are given time by the Government... and that doesn’t happen in practice. No Bill was ever published on this by Chris Skidmore or reached remotely the point at which it could make progress. Chris was a colleague when we were both members of a committee and was seeking signatures in order to air his views and this did not represent support for an actual bill, as none existed.”