Former Grantham MP dies, aged 80

Former Lincolnshire MP Lord Davies of Stamford, whose political career spanned almost four decades, has died aged 80.

Born in Oxford, Quentin Davies had a career as a diplomat before going into banking.

He was first elected to the then Stamford and Spalding seat in 1987 and famously defected from the Conservatives to Labour in 2007.

Lincolnshire County Council leader Martin Hill described him as “larger than life”.

In addition to his constituency duties, Lord Davies also served as shadow Northern Ireland secretary and junior defence minister.

His Stamford and Spalding constituency was abolished in 1997 and went on to represent the redrawn seat of Grantham and Stamford.

Lord Davies decided not to seek re-election in 2010 and that year entered the House of Lords, where he served until 2023.

He defected to Labour the day before Gordon Brown took over as prime minister from Tony Blair in 2007.

In a letter to his former Conservative leader David Cameron, he claimed the party seemed “to have ceased collectively to believe in anything, or to stand for anything”.

Coun Hill, who was chairman of the Conservative Association in Grantham during Lord Davies’ time as MP, said the defection came as a “total shock”.

“He was a bit larger than life and a very good constituency MP, so the defection came straight out of the blue,” he said.

Charmaine Morgan, an independent councillor and former Labour activist in Grantham, remembered him attending a party quiz night shortly after his defection.

“We had a whole section on the history of the Labour Party and he got the top score,” she said.