A former senior Tory aide, Ceri Evans, has defected from the Tories to join Labour claiming that William Hague's recent "foreign land" speech was the final straw.

He said that he "felt let down as a Tory voter, let down as a dad and let down as someone who believed in Britain as an enterprise economy in the 21st century".

Evans was the former director of presentation at Tory central office in 1999, leaving to manage Steve Norris's London mayoral campaign. He is the third Tory turncoat in 15 months.