“I’ve never been ideological, I’ve only ever wanted to be in politics to make a positive difference to people’s lives.”

Matthew Courtliff may not care much for party politics but he has plenty of experience of it, more even than most councillors.

The 28-year old project manager is one of three Swindon Borough councillors for Lydiard and Freshbrook ward.

Elected in 2016 wearing a Labour rosette, a few months later he decided to cross the floor to the Conservatives, only to return to Labour less than 24 hours later. In February this year, as seven Labour MPs left the party, so did he, becoming an independent councillor, and last week he announced he would be joining the Conservative group.

Coun Courtliff, who lives in Wroughton with his wife and two very young children said: “February did feel like a liberation. I’m not a fan of tribalist politics.

“If you work for an organisation and its values are no longer in line with yours, then you’d move to another one. I don’t understand why that seems strange in politics.”

The Lancashire native says he was more in line with the type of party Labour was under Tony Blair and New Labour and added: “I feel the party moved away from me, rather than the other way.”

But he admits he was never really a party man: “I have personal experience of the effects of child sexual abuse and I grew up when things like the Iraq war were being debated so I was always interested in politics - but I always saw it as a way of doing things, making a positive difference.

“I got involved with Labour because, basically, they were the first party to knock on my door in 2015, so I started campaigning for them during the general election. I liked what they party was saying, and what it stood for.”

“The things I really care about are the protection of children and making sure that we hand on a better world for them to live in. That’s what motivates me - my own experiences have driven me on to get involved and to try to achieve those things.”

The election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader seems to have been a turning point for Coun Courtliff. Within months of being elected in October 2016 he said he was switching to the Conservatives: “I was ready, and it broke in the press and the response and the abuse I got was so much I thought this was very bad for me and my family. It was too much, so I begged Labour to take me back.

“The next two years were quite hard. I didn’t campaign for Labour in the 2017 general election, but mainly because I’d long before booked a trip to Australia for my wife’s 30th birthday.

“Through those years what really helped was being on West Swindon Parish Council - I was chair of the leisure and amenities committee- we put in new bins, we renovated playparks, we did a lot and it felt I was doing thing for west Swindon people not Labour.

“Even then Conservative councillors were always willing to talk to me and listen, and I feel now, that I can be a liberal, progressive compassionate Conservative and there’s a place for me there.”

Coun Courtliff said he would serve out the next year of his term saying voters elected him as a representative, not merely a Labour member, and he wants politicians to be able to think independently and not stick rigidly to party lines.

But not everyone agrees.

The leader of the Labour group Jim Grant feels he should stand down: “The simple fact is that Coun Courtliff has betrayed the Lydiard & Freshbrook residents who voted for him as a Labour candidate in 2016. He should do the honourable thing and resign as a councillor and stand as a Conservative candidate. Anything else is a kick in the teeth to those people that voted for him in 2016.

I would be surprised if this is Cllr Courtliff’s final change of political persuasion. He voted for Jeremy Corbyn to be Labour leader in 2015, was elected a Labour councillor while Jeremy Corbyn was leader, believes in a second EU referendum and felt he wanted to belong to a new movement backing such a move and two months later has joined the Conservative Party

"All this suggests he is politically very confused but that doesn’t excuse the betrayal and he should resign and stand in the by-election as a Conservative candidate.”