MP quits 'pr-led' Tories for Labour

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Mr Davies, a former shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, delivered a withering verdict on Conservative leader David Cameron as he quit the party.

The Grantham and Stamford MP wrote in his resignation letter: "Under your leadership the Conservative Party appears to me to have ceased collectively to believe in anything, or to stand for anything. It has no bedrock. It exists on shifting sands. A sense of mission has been replaced by a PR agenda."

Mr Brown celebrated his coup by saying he was "delighted" by Mr Davies' decision.

The Chancellor said: "Quentin Davies is a senior parliamentarian and he commands respect on all sides for his expertise and his dedication to public service, and I welcome him to the New Labour party."

Mr Cameron wrote back to Mr Davies: "Your decision does not come as a surprise to me. I am sorry that you feel unable to be part of today's Conservative Party and join us in campaigning on what matters to people."

He added: "We will watch your future career with interest."

The defection did, however, shock Westminster and the virulence of Mr Davies' resignation letter pleased the Chancellor's closest aides. Mr Davies, a Conservative MP for 20 years, wrote to Mr Cameron:

"For the first 19 years of my time in the House, in common - I imagine - with the great majority of my colleagues, it never occurred to me to leave the party, whatever its current vicissitudes.

"Ties of familiarity, of friendship, and above all of commitment to constituency supporters are for all of us very strong and incredibly difficult to break. But they cannot be the basis for living a lie - for continuing in an organisation when one no longer has respect for its leadership or understanding of its aims."