Few may know of Baron Howarth of Newport. But in 1995, on the eve of the Conservative party conference, as plain old Alan Howarth he became the first Conservative MP to directly defect to the Labour party. Today, just ten minutes before PMQs, Christian Wakeford became the fourth Tory MP to join the Labour benches. His timing was excruciatingly cruel for a Prime Minister visibly sinking under the weight of his many contradictory obfuscations over ‘partygate’.
Howarth had been an MP since 1983, a junior minister and a strong supporter of Margaret Thatcher’s reforms: he was no wet. His defection was a body blow to the already embattled John Major government. But a party spokesperson put a brave face on it. ‘This will make no difference to government policies’, they said while pointing out Howarth had spent all his time in the Commons opposing Labour.
In response, the defecting MP attacked the increasing cruelty of the Major government and said it was Labour’s ‘renewal’ under Blair that had prompted him to change sides.
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