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A top Tory MP has defected to the Labour Party after claiming the Conservatives have become a “nationalist party of the right”.
Dr Dan Poulter, the MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, who also works part-time as a mental health doctor in the NHS, said he would not stand at the next election but would join the Labour Party until the vote, likely to be anytime between later this year and early 2025.
In an interview with the BBC, Dr Poulter said he could no longer look his NHS colleagues in the eye and remain a Conservative as the party was not focused on public services.
“The difficulty for the Conservative Party is that the party I was elected into valued public services,” he said. “It had a compassionate view about supporting the more disadvantaged in society.
“I think the Conservative Party today is a very different place.”
He said his experiences on more than 20 night shifts over the last year in an overstretched accident and emergency department had been “truly life changing”, adding that those experiences had persuaded him to defect.
He said he believes the Labour Party is the only party committed to investing in improving the NHS.
While Dr Poulter will not stand as a Labour MP for the upcoming general election, he says he hopes to assume a role advising the party on its policies on mental health while focusing more on his NHS work.
The one nation Tory, from the left of the party, becomes the first Conservative MP to defect to the Labour Party since Christian Wakeford crossed the floor in 2022
High-level discussions between Dr Poulter and senior Labour figures have been ongoing for months, according to The Observer, regarding the timings and organisation of his defection, as well as what advisory roles he could inhabit.
It is understood that Dr Poulter had been frustrated by the disinterest of consecutive prime ministers in his views on NHS reform since David Cameron’s premiership.
More follows on this breaking news story…
