A former Conservative minister has defected to Labour just months out from a General Election.

Dr Dan Poulter told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg he could no longer look his NHS colleagues and patients in the eyes and stay on as a Tory MP.

His defection is "wrong" according to his old party, who said "Keir Starmer has no plan for our NHS".

Dr Poulter added that he would continue as a Labour MP until this year's election before standing down.

"The difficulty for the Conservative Party is that the party I was elected into valued public services... it had a compassionate view about supporting the more disadvantaged in society," he said.

"I think the Conservative Party today is in a very different place."

The Conservatives were voted in with 365 MPs in 2019, but Dr Poulter's resignation will mean the Tories are down to just 345.

He's the third defection in this parliamentary term, following Christian Wakeford joining Labour and Lee Anderson joining Reform.

More like this…

View all