FORMER Tory front-bencher Shaun Woodward is someone few voters had heard of before his defection to Labour over the Conservative Party becoming, in his view, too extreme and right wing.

He is also someone who will soon be forgotten once his purpose of being a club for Tony Blair to clobber William Hague with has been served.

He can, of course, abandon all hope of a plum job with New Labour.

He-who-must-be-obeyed Tony Blair is hardly likely to trust a proven traitor.

But, meantime, as he briefly basks at the centre of political attention, let us consider the two main issues that caused Mr Woodward to cross the Commons' floor - the Tories' opposition to the scrapping of Clause 28, the law that prevents our children from being bombarded with homosexual propaganda in school, and their unwillingness for the pound to be sacrificed through Britain signing up for the euro.

If Mr Woodward considers that both or either of these positions amounts to be right-wing extremism, why will he not ask his constituents whether they support his view by resigning and standing in a by-election as a Labour candidate who denounces these policies?

Is it that Mr Woodward already knows the answer - that parents do not want their children fed homosexuality at school and that, as opinion polls continually show, most prefer the pound to the euro?

Unlike the renegade Mr Woodward, I do not see Middle England or grassroots Tories doing a right-wing goose-step as they adhere to these tenets.

But if this is what he no longer believes in, should he not ask his constituents for their support as he draws his MP's salary as a sudden convert to New Labour?

A man sure of his convictions would.

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