Conservative MP and former health minister Dr. Dan Poulter has defected to Labour over Tory “neglect” of the NHS and the party’s “nationalist” shift, piling pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Dr. Poulter, who’s also a working consultant psychiatrist, said he could no longer “look [his] NHS colleagues in the eye,” and claimed “the Labour party alone has the will and the trust to restore and reform the NHS.”
The MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich will take the Labour whip until the general election but said he will not be running again.
The Conservative Party hit back that he was “wrong” to say only the Opposition could improve the health service.
Writing in The Observer, Dr. Poulter said he had worked more than 20 night shifts over the past year during the junior doctors’ strike and saw the “great strain” the NHS was under.
He praised former Labour prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, saying they had “radically improved and transformed” patient care “following many years of Conservative neglect and under-investment.”
Dr. Poulter said he concluded that “the only cure is a Labour government” and that Sir Keir Starmer has made Labour a “serious party of government” following the resignation of his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn.
In an interview with the newspaper, the former one nation Tory also said the Conservative Party has become “a nationalist party of the right” after David Cameron’s premiership.
Celebrating Dr. Poulter’s defection, Sir Keir wrote on social media platform X: “It’s fantastic to welcome Dr. Dan Poulter MP to today’s changed Labour Party.
“It’s time to end the Conservative chaos, turn the page, and get Britain’s future back. I’m really pleased that Dan has decided to join us on this journey.”
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said he looked forward to working with the frontline clinician, especially on mental health reform.
It’s the second defection under Mr. Sunak after former Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson left the party for Reform earlier this year.
The dramatic defection is likely to spook already restive Tory MPs and fuel doubts over Mr. Sunak’s premiership.
There is already speculation that a disastrous set of local elections results for the Tories in a few days’ time could galvanise unhappy backbenchers into moving against him.
Mr. Sunak has insisted that he intends to call a general election in the second half of the year, but the fallout from the local elections could force his hand, either by leading to a challenge to his leadership or by persuading him that an earlier polling day could be a better solution than limping on with a divided party.
Dr. Poulter urged Mr. Sunak to call a general election “as soon as possible” as he ditched the governing party.
The prime minister has previously said the election will likely happen in the second half of the year. Most Westminster analysts take this as meaning October or November, although it could technically also mean July.
Speaking to Sky’s “Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips” programme, the prime minister refused to rule out a July election, saying he would not add to what he had already said.
Mr. Sunak also signalled he could wait for economic improvements to come through, in an apparent hint at a poll later in the year.
“I’m determined to make sure that people feel when the election comes that the future is better, that we have turned the corner,” he said.
Reacting to Dr. Poulter’s move to the Labour Party, a Tory Party spokesperson said: “For the people of Central Suffolk and North Ipswich this will be disappointing news. What Dan says is wrong as Sir Keir Starmer has no plan for our NHS.
“Under the Conservatives we are raising NHS funding to a record £165 billion a year, helping it recover from the effects of the pandemic and driving forward its first ever long-term workforce plan so that we train the doctors and nurses we need for the future in our country.”
