Isn't he something of a wet, Considering he represents Billericay?
He voted against the war in Iraq, which may or may not class him as a 'wet'.
That area does have a history of real 'rabid right' Tories - Harvey Proctor and Teresa Gorman come to mind!
Both reasons were why I thought so, he's certainly a wet compared to them!
Voting against the war in Iraq may be a indicator, but of course Edward Leigh did so and he's certainly no wet, but most of the Tories who did (Ken Clarke etc.) tended to be.. Also a lot of Labour rebels (e.g. jim Dobbin, Joe Benton, Denzil Davies) were social conservatives on many issues..
a lot of MPs who voted against it were socially conservative
