A former Liberal Democrat who defected to the Conservatives in order to save his seat in the European Parliament has launched an attack on Eurosceptic Tories. Sajjad Karim – who is nicknamed ‘Salvaj Karir’ pronounced ‘Salvage Career’ in honour of his defection ruse – accused three MEPs of “hubrus and hysteria” for voting against “old Europe” Jean-Claude Juncker as European Commission President.

Karim represented the North-West for the arch-Europhile Liberal Democrats from 2004 to 2007, but left the party when it became clear he would lose his seat. Instead he used a technicality within the Conservative rules on selecting MEPs to guarantee he was given a place on the candidates list that would allow him to stay in the European Parliament.

His move outraged senior North-West Conservatives, but they were unable to act because the party leadership had agreed the rules with MEPs in advance of his defection. Breitbart London understands the rules were drawn up because pro-European MEPs feared a free and fair selection system would see them removed from office by party members.

The former Lib Dem wrote a piece in yesterday’s Guardian after three Conservative MEPs refused to endorse the European Commission’s appointment. The three MEPs: Dan Hannan, Nirj Deva and Emma McCarkin had broken the Conservative whip, but only after David Cameron himself had desperately tried to stop Juncker’s appointment because he is seen as an anti-reform Brussels insider.

But Sajjad Karim was unimpressed with their actions, saying: “The Conservative party must not become a UKIP proxy. We cannot as a centre-right party be drawn into the hubris and hysteria of populism that demands total withdrawal from Europe while ignoring the obvious dangers of such action and spurning the opportunity for reform that lies ahead of us.

“Voting against the commission would have been a vote against the UK national interest. Why choose isolation over cooperation, when our best chances of reforming Europe are through collaboration?”

One senior North-West Conservative who had opposed Karim’s selection told Breitbart London: “Saj Karim is a total charlatan. He doesn’t have a Conservative bone in his body – his membership of the party is all about self-interest. He defected because he knew he would lose his seat if he remained a Liberal Democrat. It was even worse to see him ‘forget’ to mention any of this on his CV to Conservative members.

“Karim has a solid track record of being an ardent Euro-federalist. He has form when it comes to issuing these type of attacks. The day after the ballot closed for the re-selection of candidates for the 2014 elections, he likened Eurosceptics to the ‘Taliban’.

“I know of almost no voters in the North-West who voted Conservative in order to help the European Commission abolish our country, but in Saj that is what they got.”

The system of selection makes it almost impossible for the Conservatives to deselect Sajjad Karim as long as he wishes to remain an MEP. Karim was awarded an honourary doctorate by the the former Labour MP Mohammad Sarwar, who is now governor of Punjab. In a break with tradition the MEP styles himself Dr Saj Karim despite having never studied for the award.