Tory official Simon Barrett on Tim Yeo's reaction when challenged about lobbying scandal at local meeting By Simon Barrett There was a bizarre moment when Tim Yeo addressed a private meeting of the executive of South Suffolk Conservatives at Sudbury's Victoria Hall. He had come to tell us why, after 30 years as our MP, we should not deselect him. All of a sudden, his mobile trilled. He picked it up and said: "Sorry, no, I haven't got time to speak to the Prime Minister, I'm busy." It happened not once, but twice. Busy: MP Tim Yeo on the 2010 Election trail in Suffolk, but locals say he hasn't been seen enough since winning Someone, who was sitting much closer to him than I was, said he appeared to have set the phone's alarm to make it ring during the meeting. Mr Yeo gave his trademark smirk. Pretending to be receiving a phone call from David Cameron - and I assume that he was pretending - did not impress his audience. It went down very badly, but he was oblivious to it, just as he is oblivious to the fact so many of us are fed up with him as our MP. People are puzzled why he lives in Sandwich, Kent, 125 miles away, next door to his beloved Royal St George's Golf Club, rather than beautiful and historic Sudbury. 'Fed up': Simon Barrett, executive member of South Suffolk Conservatives, says 'many' members are 'fed up' with having Mr Yeo as MP People are decent and tolerant here, but Mr Yeo's colourful private life has often stretched that to the limit. And while too busy to spend more time in his constituency, he found time to write glossy golfing press reports describing exotic trips around the globe - and time to accumulate lucrative directorships in environmental companies. The last straw was a newspaper expose suggesting he used his position as chairman of the Commons Energy and Climate Change committee to pursue commercial interests. When asked about this at the executive meeting he said: "I have been exonerated by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner." The report said he had not broken any rules nor damaged "the integrity of the Commons." But it also said it was "very regrettable" he had got into the position he did, adding, "it affects his personal reputation" and he "should consider more carefully the impact of his comments." When Mr Yeo was challenged on this at Victoria Hall, his florid complexion rose to a crimson hue and he became very snippy with the questioner. He flung his hand to one side and dismissed further discussion. It was like a country squire addressing a gathering of peasants. And he was rude to a younger female executive member who asked him to stand aside for the sake of the party, ridiculing her for asking him to remove her name from his email list. Nor have calls to save Mr Yeo by Cabinet Ministers such as George Osborne gone down well. They should keep out. The Chancellor called him a "politician of principle." It is not the first word that springs to my mind. Pretence: Mr Yeo (left) seemingly pretended to receive a call from David Cameron (right) during the meeting People in Sudbury are sensitive about these matters. As a journalist, Charles Dickens reported on an Election in Sudbury, believed to be the fictional "rotten borough" of "Eatanswill" in Pickwick Papers - "a town alive with loathsome corruption, hypocritical in all its public utterances, and venal in all its votes." When Mr Yeo said he would stand at the next Election in 2015 (by which time he will be 70), the hard-working and deeply loyal Conservatives of South Suffolk rose in revolt. When Mr Yeo addressed our executive, we were all told to keep it hush-hush. I, and many others, are no longer prepared to stay silent. We want no return to Eatanswill.