BIRMINGHAM: British Prime Minister David Cameron is bidding to rally his Conservatives for victory at next year's general election at their annual conference Sunday, with the party reeling from a defection and a sex scandal.
Cameron admitted it had "not been an ideal start" to the gathering in Birmingham, after one lawmaker left the day before to join the eurosceptic United Kingdom Independence Party, then a junior minister quit after being caught out sending an explicit photograph of himself.
The centre-right Conservatives risk losing a handful of seats and thousands of votes to UKIP at the May general election -- possibly enough to cost them victory.
Cameron told BBC television the defection of MP Mark Reckless to UKIP was "frustrating... counter-productive and rather senseless". He said the aims Reckless claimed to be pursuing were "only" achievable through a Conservative government.
The conference comes a week before an election which could see UKIP land its first seat in the House of Commons at the Conservatives' expense.
Douglas Carswell, the first Tory MP who switched sides to UKIP, is expected to be re-elected in the coastal town of Clacton, southeast England, on October 9, threatening a major embarrassment for Cameron.
The Conservatives currently govern Britain in a coalition with the smaller Liberal Democrats but are vying to win enough seats to govern alone in 2015.
If they do so, they have promised to hold a referendum in 2017 on whether Britain should continue to be a member of the European Union.
Europe has long been an open wound for the Tories, with many rank and file members wanting to leave the EU altogether. Cameron and other senior figures back continued membership, while reforming London's relationship with Brussels.
Within hours of the defection, civil society minister Brooks Newmark, a 56-year-old married father of five, was exposed in the Sunday Mirror newspaper sending a graphic image of himself to an undercover male journalist posing as a young PR girl called Sophie.
He told ITV television he had been a "complete fool" who had "no-one to blame but myself," adding: "I am so sorry."
Cameron said ahead of the conference: "I have to admit, it's not been an ideal start.
"But the truth is, these things, frustrating as they are, they don't change the fundamental choice at the election."
Opinion polls put the main opposition Labour Party a few points ahead of the Conservatives, although Cameron's personal ratings are higher than those of Labour leader Ed Miliband.
The conference opens with a debate about the state of the United Kingdom.
This comes after Scotland voted on September 18 to reject independence in a close race which has opened a debate about whether more powers should be devolved from London to other parts of Britain.
Foreign policy will be another key topic of debate after lawmakers from all parties approved Britain joining US-led air strikes on Islamic State jihadist targets in Iraq on Friday.
"We are part of a large international coalition to degrade and ultimately destroy this organisation," Cameron said, calling IS "psychopathic terrorist killers".
Cameron will close the conference with a keynote speech Wednesday while London Mayor Boris Johnson, who is bidding for election to parliament next year and is seen as a possible Cameron successor, speaks Tuesday.
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