A KENT Conservative MP has urged his party to keep its nerve after the defection of a long-standing MP to Labour.

The decision of Quentin Davies, MP for Grantham and Stamford, to switch parties, coupled with an opinion poll bounce for Gordon Brown, has put the Conservatives on the back foot and comes as Tony Blair leaves office.

But Faversham and Mid Kent MP Hugh Robertson has dismissed the defection as a "24-hour wonder" and insisted it was vital party did not panic.

"I expected Labour to get a bounce from the opinion polls but I expected it to be bigger. I see it tailing off through the Autumn. We must keep our nerve and not do anything silly. I do not think the momentum has changed and for Labour to reverse it would be extraordinarily difficult."

On Quentin Davies, the MP said: "My surprise is not that it has happened but that it did not happen earlier. He is a fervent pro-European at a time when the party has coalesced around a position that he is out-of-step with."

Meanwhile, the Labour MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey Derek Wyatt predicted there could be more Conservative defectors.

"I think there could be one more. I get the feeling there is something going on. There is clearly deep unhappiness with David Cameron and no-one from his party has yet answered Davies’ criticism that he does not stand for anything."

But Labour should not trigger an early general election on the back of a fillip in the opinion polls, suggested Mr Wyatt.

And he stressed: "I think that would be quite cynical. We had an election two years ago and that is enough. I believe we should have fixed four-year terms."