Top Tory MP defects to Labour in fury at NHS crisis
Apr 27, 2024 21:11:59 GMT
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Post by Carl LaFong on Apr 27, 2024 21:11:59 GMT
Exclusive: Ex-health minister Dan Poulter, who also works as a hospital doctor, says Conservatives have become ‘nationalist party of the right’.
A Tory MP and former health minister has staged a dramatic defection to Labour, saying the Conservatives have become a “nationalist party of the right” that has abandoned compassion and no longer prioritises the NHS.
Dr Dan Poulter, the MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, who works part-time as a mental health doctor in an NHS hospital, announced he was resigning as a Tory MP and would be taking the Labour whip until the next election in an exclusive interview with the Observer.
He said he would not seek re-election to the House of Commons at the next general election. But, writing in the Observer, he says he envisages a role advising the Labour party on its policies on mental health while focusing more on his NHS work.
Poulter said his experiences on more than 20 night shifts over the last year in a severely overstretched accident and emergency department had been “truly life-changing” and persuaded him to defect to the only party he believed was now really committed to investing in 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.”
The Observer understands that discussions between Poulter and senior Labour figures have been going on for many months at the highest levels about the timing and organisation of his likely defection, as well as advisory roles he could play in future in developing the party’s health policies, with the benefit of his firsthand inside knowledge.
www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/27/top-tory-mp-defects-to-labour-in-fury-at-nhs-crisis
A Tory MP and former health minister has staged a dramatic defection to Labour, saying the Conservatives have become a “nationalist party of the right” that has abandoned compassion and no longer prioritises the NHS.
Dr Dan Poulter, the MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, who works part-time as a mental health doctor in an NHS hospital, announced he was resigning as a Tory MP and would be taking the Labour whip until the next election in an exclusive interview with the Observer.
He said he would not seek re-election to the House of Commons at the next general election. But, writing in the Observer, he says he envisages a role advising the Labour party on its policies on mental health while focusing more on his NHS work.
Poulter said his experiences on more than 20 night shifts over the last year in a severely overstretched accident and emergency department had been “truly life-changing” and persuaded him to defect to the only party he believed was now really committed to investing in 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.”
The Observer understands that discussions between Poulter and senior Labour figures have been going on for many months at the highest levels about the timing and organisation of his likely defection, as well as advisory roles he could play in future in developing the party’s health policies, with the benefit of his firsthand inside knowledge.
www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/27/top-tory-mp-defects-to-labour-in-fury-at-nhs-crisis
