Tory MP Dan Poulter defects to Labour

Rishi Sunak’s good week in politics just came to an end. Buoyed by a successful defence spending announcement and the passage of the Rwanda Bill, there had been rumours that the run-up to Thursday’s local elections would see the announcement of the general election date. But in a shock move, Tory backbencher Dan Poulter this afternoon announced that he is defecting to Labour, citing the depleted state of the health service. The MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich previously said he was standing down at the next election but will now sit for the Labour party until parliament is dissolved.

In an interview with the BBC, the former health minister told Laura Kuenssberg that he could no longer look his NHS colleagues and patients in the eye and stay on as a Conservative. Poulter, who works part time as a doctor, suggested that the Tories were no longer focused on public services, saying: ‘The party I was elected into valued public services… it had a compassionate view about supporting the more disadvantaged in society.