UKIP treasurer: 8 Tory MPs in preliminary defection talks
Eight Conservative MPs have held preliminary talks about defecting to UKIP, the party's treasurer has claimed.
Stuart Wheeler has told The Daily Telegraph: “I have had lunch secretly if you like, in a completely confidential way, with eight different Tory MPs.”
Mr Wheeler, who was expelled from the Conservatives in 2009 after donating £100,000 to UKIP, has said he has passed their details onto the party's leader Nigel Farage.