Dr Dan Poulter has said he will join Labour until the next election (Picture: PA)
Tory MP Dan Poulter has announced he is quitting the Conservatives and joining Labour.
The former health minister told the Observer the Tories no longer value public services, and says he could no longer ‘look people in the eye’ and stay on as a Conservative.
Dr Poulter, the MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, still works part-time as a mental health doctor in an NHS hospital, and said he would take the Labour whip until the next general election before standing down from parliament.
The MP told the Observer his experiences working night shifts in A&E had been ‘truly life-changing’ and persuaded him to defect to Labour, who he claims are the only party committed to improving the NHS.
He said: ‘I could not go on as part of that. I have to be able to look my NHS colleagues in the eye, my patients in the eye and my constituents in the eye.
‘And I know that the Conservative government has been failing on the thing I care about most, which is the NHS and its patients.’
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Dr Poulter added: ‘The chaos of today’s fragmented patchwork of community addiction services – making A&E the default location for people to get treatment and help – has added pressure to an already overstretched service.
‘The mental toll of a service stretched close to breaking point is not confined to patients and their families. It also weighs heavily on my NHS colleagues who are unable to deliver the right care in a system that simply no longer works for our patients.
‘It is this which has led me today to have resigned from the Conservative party to focus on my work as a doctor and to support Keir Starmer.’
The defection is the first of its kind since Christian Wakeford crossed the floor and joined Labour in 2022, and will be seen as another blow to RIshi Sunak’s authority ahead of the local and London Mayoral elections on May 2.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has welcomed the ‘fantastic’ defection of Dr Poulter and wrote on social media: ‘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.’
This is a developing news story, more to follow soon… Check back shortly for further updates.
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