Suspension of Links By The Conservative Party (2001)
Regardless of the fact that the Monday Club was a completely autonomous pressure-group and not part of the Conservative Party organisation, in 2001, Conservative Party chairman David Davis informed the club's National Executive that links between it and the party were being severed until it stopped promoting several of its (long-held and established) policies such as the voluntary repatriation of ethnic minorities. Davis later told the media: "I have told them that until a number of things are concluded—particularly some concerns about the membership of the club, and a review of the club's constitution and a requirement that the club will not promulgate or discuss policies relating to race—the club is suspended from any association with the Conservative party". Three MPs, Andrew Hunter, Andrew Rosindell and Angela Watkinson, were ordered to resign from the club.
On the 10 May 2002, the British Broadcasting Corporation reported that the club sought to restore its links with the Conservative Party. At the following Club Annual General meeting in April 2002, members approved two motions proposed by Michael Keith Smith, (also Chairman of the Conservative Democratic Alliance); one reaffirming the Club's opposition to mass immigration, and another empowering Club officers to institute legal action against the Conservative Party following the Club's 'suspension' by them. A third motion, asking the Club to call for the sacking of John Bercow, then Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and former Monday Club member, for his "hypocrisy", was defeated.
The Times reported (2 June 2006) that, as the club "is now slowly nudging back into the mainstream, many members feel that it is time to return to the fold".
The Monday Club, having changed its original raison d'être as a pressure group, and whose membership is now said to be back below 600, now has very little influence on the agenda of the Conservative Party. Many of its former members subsequently joined the Conservative Democratic Alliance.
Read more about this topic: Conservative Monday Club
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