Marta finally jumps ship to the Tories

It comes as no surprise to learn that Marta Andreasen has defected from UKIP to the Tories.

Marta was bumped up the MEP list as she was a high profile candidate at the time, promising to fix UKIP's finances and expose the fraud and corruption in the EU.  The membership put her at the top of the regional list for the south east of England, second only to Nigel Farage.  As a bean counter she did a great job but as an MEP she was a disappointment.

The main problem with Marta is that she's not a eurosceptic.  She is wholeheartedly opposed to the fraud and corruption that is endemic in the EU but she favours reform, not withdrawal.  She will fit right in with the Tories in that respect but I'm not sure how her new-found love of the financially illiterate, europhile Tories can be reconciled with this quote from just a few weeks ago:

I joined UKIP because the Tories wanted to reform the EU and in my experience I thought that the EU could not be reformed. In the course of my years as an MEP, I have only grown more convinced of this.

Marta has, to be blunt, been a pain in the arse for quite some time now.  She has been increasingly off message, ignorant and disruptive.  She has aired her dirty laundry in public on many an occasion and lost the respect and support of the membership in doing so.  It's frankly astounding that Marta didn't resign sooner but the timing was obviously chosen to try and get UKIP negative publicity just before voters go to the polls in Eastleigh.  After all, it's UKIP that are going to prevent the Tories from winning there, not the Lib Dems and certainly not Labour.  This defection has clearly been planned for some time.

Like David Campbell Bannerman, Marta was a nobody before UKIP propelled her into the limelight and like David Campbell Bannerman, Marta will once again disappear into obscurity after the next election.  She's been behaving like an opposition MEP for some time, at least she's finally had the decency to make it official and stop wasting our time.  If she thought she was going to be sorely missed, she's going to be a little disappointed:

"Conservative Party deserve what's coming to them. The woman is impossible."
- Nigel Farage

And if she thinks she's going to be welcomed with open arms by the Tory faithful she's going to be even more disappointed:

To say Andreasen’s behaviour is flaky would be an understatement. My experience of her is that she is also not to be trusted, and the Tories should be very wary of her.
- Iain Dale

I think I speak for most UKIP members when I say goodbye and good riddance.