Tring, United Kingdom, Dec 1 (AFP/APP): Only a few months ago, David Gauke was a Conservative minister. Now he’s standing in Britain’s upcoming election as an independent, hoping to deprive the party and its prime minister of victory. “With a majority, Boris Johnson would be able to proceed with a reckless course of action over Brexit,” Gauke told AFP he handed out leaflets on a damp afternoon in Tring, a market town in southern England. Gauke quit as justice minister in July when Johnson became Conservative leader, in protest over his threat to leave the European Union without a deal with Brussels. Two months later, Johnson expelled him and 20 other MPs from the party for trying to block him in parliament, in the process losing his majority in the House of Commons. UK’s Johnson vows to act as convicted terrorist named in London attack Most of the rebels have since been readmitted or retired, but Gauke and two others are now standing against the Tories in their old constituencies on December 12. – ‘Admire his courage’ – Gauke admits he is in a “very strange” position, but it reflects the turbulence in British politics since the historic 2016 Brexit … Continue reading Tories’ Brexit outcasts take on Johnson as independents