I am writing to express my abject dismay at the decision of Councillor Suzanne Evans, Councillor Richard Hilton, Councillor Rod Scott and Councillor Linda Scott to defect to UKIP in what I as nothing more than an attempted power grab.

Their arguments for leaving - that there is backstabbing and duplicity in the Tory party - are yet to be proven, but then again, that's local government politics for you and the very nature of it in a party on the back foot and in need of some modernisation in its outlook and procedures.

That they resigned when Oonagh Moulton was elected group leader for a third year shows this to be nothing more than some sort of bizarre power-play on their part - disgruntled at the election of someone they obviously do not support.

I have met Oonagh on a number of occasion and have found her to be a very effective operator and an active campaigner, there should be a few more like her on the council.

Be that as it may, I want to appeal to their apparent sense of fair play and call on them to stand down (not terribly fashionable these days) and let the people of Merton judge whether they want to be served by UKIP or by the Conservative Party on whose platform these turncoats were originally elected.

The other frightening result that these defecting councillors have brought about is to potentially condemn us to more time at the whim and fancies of Councillor Stephen Alambritis and his gang.

So thank them for not thinking of the bigger picture and potentially preventing the Conservative Party - which sees the council as serve the rate payers and not the unions/contractors - from regaining control of the executive.

I finish by reiterating my point above, the defecting councillors should do the decent thing and stand in a by-election to truly judge whether the people of Merton really want UKIP to have a say in our council.

For that is the only way for which their actions can be, at most, democratically justified.

Henry Rubinstein, via email