No lurch to the right, says Cameron
10:18pm Saturday 2nd March 2013 in National News © Press Association 2013
David Cameron insisted Tories will 'stick to the course we are on' despite defeat in Eastleigh
David Cameron has vowed there will be no "lurch to the right" by the Conservatives in the wake of the party's drubbing in the Eastleigh by-election.
The Prime Minister insisted he would "stick to the course we are on", despite seeing the Tories beaten into third place behind the UK Independence Party (Ukip).
Nevertheless, in an apparent move to appeal to voters who abandoned the Conservatives for Ukip, Justice Secretary Chris Grayling indicated the Tories would abolish the Human Rights Act - which enshrines the European Convention on Human Rights in British law - if they won the next general election.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Cameron said he fully understood the concerns of voters impatient for change after what he said were years of decline under the former Labour government.
"I know who these people are. They are people who feel that Britain, this great country we love, was going downhill for years under Labour and is not being fixed fast enough by the Government I lead," he wrote.
"These people - hard-working, decent, patriotic people - are who the Conservative Party has always been for. We are on the side of those who want to work hard and get on in life.
"But the battle for Britain's future will not be won in lurching to the right, nor by some cynical attempt to calculate the middle distance between your political opponents and then planting yourself somewhere between them. That is lowest common denominator politics - and it gets you nowhere."
Mr Grayling, meanwhile, threatened to exacerbate tensions within the coalition by indicating that a majority Conservative government would repeal the Human Rights Act which the Liberal Democrats are committed to defending.
Ukip leader Nigel Farage said the Tories always promised "jam tomorrow" and claimed their supporters would no longer believe promises from the party.
Speaking on the BBC One Andrew Marr programme, Mr Farage said he did not believe a shift to the right by the Conservative Party would halt Ukip's momentum, despite widespread reports today of Tory shifts on issues such as the Human Rights Act and the European Court.
