Zac Goldsmith ‘defecting to Labour’ will send chills through the party (the Labour Party)

News that the election-blowing eco Tory peer is cozying up to your party would be enough to terrify any leader, writes Tom Peck. But it also asks the deeper question – what on earth is Goldsmith up to?

If Goldsmith has sussed you out, you might be in even bigger trouble than you realise (AP)

“Zac Goldsmith is ‘very tempted’ to support Labour at next election.” The headline will have sent waves of panic through party headquarters.

Labour Party headquarters, that is.

There are, in modern politics, few more certain ways to lose an election than to have Zac Goldsmith involved, in any way. He is the Tory Wario. There may exist no politician who, during a full decade and a half of rule by his own party, can have lost quite so many elections in quite such spectacularly self-inflicted fashion.