Conservatives sack their Southport Chairman

5.30.00pm GMT Tue 26th Jan 2010

Civil war has broken out in Southport Conservatives.

Jackie Glover has been removed as chairman of Southport Conservative Association. The Conservative Party issued the following press release on Tuesday 26th January:

"Mrs Jackie Glover has been removed as chairman of Southport Conservative Association by the Board of the Conservative Party for failing to properly support the general election campaign. Carl Cross, the Merseyside Area Chairman of the Conservative Party, has been appointed as acting chairman of the Southport Association with immediate effect."

"Carl Cross said: Southport Conservative Association is united in supporting Brenda Porter, our excellent local candidate and is working to ensure she becomes our next MP whenever Gordon Brown has the courage to call a general election. We have never underestimated the hard work needed in such a campaign and remain focused on this goal, exposing the incompetence of this failing Labour government and the discredited so-called Lib Dem opposition. Only Brenda Porter and the Conservative Party can provide the change Southport and the country is demanding."

Southport's Lib Dem MP, John Pugh said "It's really a pity that local Conservatives cannot sort out their differences without suspending, expelling or removing people.

"I don't like to see bitterness in politics and genuinely would prefer it if my opponents kept a sense of proportion, shared a pot of tea or a drink together and accepted that people in a political party don't have to agree all the time."