Why Labour's Marsden defected

Mr Kennedy (left) meets his latest recruit

		By Nick Robinson BBC News 24 political correspondent

Labour MP Paul Marsden's defection to the Liberal Democrats has, to a certain extent, been stage-managed by the party's press people.

The words "spin" and "control freakery" are now (for Labour) rather like the word "sleaze" for the Major government

The suggestion is that Mr Marsden is upset about Labour's position on a whole range of issues.

But if you read between the lines, it is clear he simply got sick of the way he was being treated over the war in Afghanistan.

He had what he regarded were legitimate concerns and he was, arguably, sat on from a great height.

Mr Marsden says he also feels upset about Labour health and transport policies.

I am sure he does - but there is not great evidence of him pursuing those concerns up until now.

'Appeaser'

It is easy to see why Mr Marsden was angry with Labour.

At one stage, he was being compared, by Labour Chief Whip Hilary Armstrong, to the appeasers of the Nazis - and he didn't like that.

He was also denied a vote against the war in Afghanistan.

He knew a vote would have been won easily by the government - because of its huge majority - but he wanted to register his protest all the same.

'Bullied by whips'

Without wishing to be unkind, Paul Marsden is unlikely to ever be a household name and the Lib Dems know this.

Politics is often about momentum - and this gives Mr Kennedy a bit of momentum

His value for them is that he is a New Labour MP - from a party used to gaining recruits not losing people.

And he is saying 'I am an MP who wanted to express my dissent, I wasn't allowed to. I was bullied by the whips for trying to do it.'

That plays very badly for the Labour Party, because the words "spin" and "control freakery" are now rather like the word "sleaze" for the Major government.

All the stories about sleaze never added up to all that much for Mr Major.

But they played into a symbolic sense that there was something fundamentally that people did not like about the government

The difficulty this Labour government has got is spin has become its sleaze.

Paul Marsden is a New Labour MP joining the Liberal Democrats and people who want to believe the stories will say 'I told you so'.

Gaining momentum

The Lib Dems also welcomed members of the so-called Pro-European Conservative party, a small breakaway group of ex Tory MEPs, into their party on Monday.

He may also find the Lib Dem view on the war - the issue which prompted him to defect in the first place - is not all that different from Labour

These people are not important in themselves, but, like Paul Marsden, they allow Charles Kennedy to say people dissatisfied with the two big parties are turning to the Lib Dems.

Politics is often about momentum - and this gives Mr Kennedy a bit of momentum.

Will Paul Marsden feel all that comfortable in his new party?

Up until a couple of days ago Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Simon Hughes was saying he ought not to join.

So I suspect he won't feel all that comfortable.

He may also find the Lib Dem view on the war - the issue which prompted him to defect in the first place - is not all that different from Labour.