Conservatives left 'speechless' after MP's defection

Dan Poulter said he left the Conservative Party because it no longer values public services

The former colleagues of Dan Poulter have expressed their shock and anger at the MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich's decision to defect from the Conservative Party to Labour.

Fellow Suffolk MPs described his act as “surprising”, while several local councillors suggested that he has not been visible as an MP.

Dr Poulter said he has left the Conservative Party because it no longer values public services.

He will stand down at the next general election but will sit as a Labour MP until it is called.

Some Conservative Party members in Suffolk were privately using words such as “speechless”, “stunned” and “let down” as news of Dr Poulter’s defection broke.

Others expressed their views in public. Ian Fisher, the leader the Conservative Party group at Ipswich Borough Council, took to social media and said: “I’ve spent years standing up for him in north Ipswich. Was campaigning this morning and he didn’t have the decency to tell his hard-working activists in advance. A very self-centred man.”

Sam Murray, an Ipswich borough councillor, wrote on X: “Good riddance. So glad I no longer have to apologise for his failure to turn up in north Ipswich.”

Nadia Cenci, a Suffolk county councillor, posted: “Goodbye and forgotten already.”

'NHS deserves better'

The BBC understands Dr Poulter told close colleagues about his decision shortly before it was made public. One said it was a shock and they were still trying to process the news.

Dr Poulter, who has made no secret of also working as a doctor, told the BBC that he was finding it “increasingly difficult” to look patients and his constituents in the eye.

“I think the NHS deserves better,” he said

“The party I was elected into valued public services. I think the Conservative Party today is in a differently place. Its focus is not on delivering high-quality public services.”

Tom Hunt, the Conservative MP for Ipswich, told the BBC that the news “has come as a bolt out of the blue and bearing in mind his previous critical comments about the Labour Party this is clearly surprising”.

Thérèse Coffey, the MP for Suffolk Coastal, said: “With NHS funding at a record high, I’m surprised that Dr Poulter has jumped ship from a Conservative government that has been prioritising patients.”

A significant moment?

Labour, which has hopes of doing well in Suffolk at the next general election, sees the defection of a practising doctor as a significant moment.

Jess Asato, Labour's parliamentary candidate for Lowestoft, said: “Like Dan, many former Conservatives are now recognising that only Labour has answers to the change our country desperately needs.”

On Monday Dr Poulter is expected to return to Parliament and “cross the floor” to sit on the opposition benches, as the Labour MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich. The first time the constituency has had a Labour MP in its 27-year history.

This may be a significant moment for local politics in a county that has always been dominated by the Conservatives.

Yet with a majority of more than 23,000, the Conservative Party hopes that Dr Poulter's seat will return to the fold in the next general election.