Tory expelled over rival election plan

Iain Duncan Smith has expelled a far-right Tory from the party after reports that he had discussed running candidates against Conservative MPs in marginal seats.

Michael Smith is a member of the Monday Club and the chairman of a new activist group, the Conservative Democratic Alliance.

Mr Smith, who is opposed to the suspension of the anti-immigration Monday Club's affiliation to the Tory party, had threatened to create trouble for the Conservative Party.

Yesterday, Tory sources said Mr Smith had been expelled under rules that say "no ... party member ... or applicant for membership shall engage in conduct bringing, or likely to bring, the party into disrepute".

The move follows comments in a Sunday newspaper about talks Mr Smith had held with colleagues on running rival candidates under a Real Conservatives banner in a future election.

Mr Smith was reported to have said: "If they are looking to take me on, then they are in for a whole lot of trouble. There is a scenario that is being discussed by myself and my colleagues, that we could run candidates against the Conservative Party as Real Conservatives. We would choose seats where they have a 500 majority and pinch it."

The Tory leader also plans to make the Conservative Democratic Alliance a proscribed organisation, which means that Tories would not be able to join it without jeopardising their membership of the Conservative Party.

The party leadership has the power to cancel or refuse membership "in its absolute discretion" to any party member or person who wants to join.

Mr Duncan Smith has been keen to be seen to rid the Conservative Party of any extreme right-wing association. He also wants to make it more attractive to ethnic minorities and mainstream voters who may have abandoned the Tories for the Labour Party.

He recently told Ann Winterton to step down from her job as a front-bench agriculture spokesman after she told a racist joke at a rugby club dinner.