Tory MP defects to Labour after saying he ‘can’t look people in the eye’
Tory MP Dan Poulter has announced he is quitting the Conservatives and joining Labour.
The former health minister told the Observer the Tories no longer value public services, and says he could no longer ‘look people in the eye’ and stay on as a Conservative.
Dr Poulter, the MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, still works part-time as a mental health doctor in an NHS hospital, and said he would take the Labour whip until the next general election before standing down from parliament.
The MP told the Observer his experiences working night shifts in A&E had been ‘truly life-changing’ and persuaded him to defect to Labour, who he claims are the only party committed to 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.’
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