Grewal: Conservatives released the tapes in order to prevent other MPs from crossing

As noted, Grewal has given an interview to the Surrey Leader, a community paper serving Surrey and North Delta. For the whole story, see here.

In the course of the interview, Grewal makes a rather surprising admission:

But Grewal also revealed that the Conservatives hoped the revelation of the vote-buying tapes would put the brakes on any further Conservative defections after Stronach's stunning departure.

The Tories heard the Liberals were in talks with more in their ranks and both parties were scrambling to shore up support ahead of the critical confidence vote.

"We had a political crisis also taking place," Grewal said. "If we had not done it the way we did, maybe three or four other MPs could have moved to the Liberals like Belinda Stronach has done."

This is, I think, the first time that this has been offered as an explanation for the tapes--that they were meant to make it impossible for other Conservatives to follow Belinda across the floor.

It is interesting that we've had two new explanations added to the record within a few days: that the Conservatives felt that there were other defections coming, here, and Grewal's need to avoid the fate of Inky Mark (see here.)