A Conservative MP has defected to the Labour Party amid fury over Boris Johnson’s partygate scandal.
Christian Wakeford - a “red wall” MP elected in 2019 - crossed the floor to join Keir Starmer’s party just minutes before prime minister’s questions.
Labour MPs cheered and whooped as Wakeford took a seat on the opposition benches wearing a Union Jack face mask. It is the first defection from the Tories to Labour in 15 years.
It comes after the MP for Bury South branded the partygate scandal “embarrassing” in a series of damning comments last week.
Wakeford is thought to be among at least ten Tories elected in 2019 who have submitted letters of no confidence in Johnson’s leadership.
The outspoken MP, who has a majority of 402, hit the headlines during the so-called “sleaze scandal” when he called the Tory MP at the epicentre of the crisis Owen Paterson a “c***”.
And in a candid letter today, Wakeford told Johnson: “My decision is about much more than your leadership and the disgraceful way you have conducted yourself in recent weeks.”
Wakeford wrote: “From today I will be sitting as the Labour MP for Bury South because I have reached the conclusion that the best interests of my constituents are served by the programme put forward by Keir Starmer and his party.
“My decision is about much more than your leadership and the disgraceful way you have conducted yourself in recent weeks.”
- Christian Wakeford's letter to Boris Johnson
“I care passionately about the people of Bury South and I have concluded that the policies of the Conservative government that you lead are doing nothing to help the people of my constituency and indeed are only making the struggles they face on a daily basis worse.”
Wakeford went on to say the country needed a government focused on tackling the cost of living crisis and a path out of the pandemic.
And in another barb aimed at the prime minister, the MP added: “It needs a government that upholds the highest standards of integrity and probity in public life and sadly both you and the Conservative Party as a whole have shown themselves incapable of offering the leadership and government this country deserves.”
Wakeford said he had “wrestled” with his conscience for “many months” but had decided: “I can no longer support a government that has shown itself consistently out of touch with the hard working people of Bury South and the country as a whole.”
Leader of the Labour Party Starmer was noticeably buoyed as he kicked off today’s PMQs.
“I would like to welcome Christian Wakeford to the Labour Party. He has always put the people of Bury South first,” Starmer said in a statement.
“As Christian said, the policies of the Conservative government are doing nothing to help the people of Bury South and indeed are only making the struggles they face on a daily basis worse.
“People across Britain faces a cost of living crisis but this incompetent Tory government is asleep at the wheel, distracted by a chaos of its own making.
“I would like to welcome Christian Wakeford to the Labour Party.”
- Keir Starmer
“Meanwhile families, businesses and pensioners are suffering from the Conservative failure to tackle rising food, fuel and energy prices.
“Labour are the only ones who have put forward a plan to help people through the Tory cost of living crisis.
“I’m determined to build a new Britain which guarantees security, prosperity and respect for all and I’m delighted that Christian has decided to join us in this endeavour.”
“We will win again in Bury South.”
- Boris Johnson
Johnson hit back at Starmer, telling him: “The Conservative Party won Bury South for the first time in a generation under this prime minister on an agenda of uniting and levelling up and delivering for the people of Bury South. We will win again in Bury South.”
Meanwhile, culture secretary Nadine Dorries said Wakeford “has yet to realise that the Union Jack mask he is wearing to cross the floor to Labour, is not welcome on that side of the house”.
MPs from the 2019 intake were said to have met yesterday to discuss Johnson’s future in a gathering dubbed the “pork pie plot” because of the alleged involvement of Melton Mowbray’s MP Alicia Kearns.
The group appear to have lost faith in the PM, after he admitted attending a “bring your own booze” event in the Downing Street garden during England’s first coronavirus lockdown.
Johnson made another grovelling apology yesterday in which he repeatedly claimed he thought the garden party at Downing Street was a “work event” and suggested “nobody told me” it broke lockdown rules.
However, Johnson’s bid to placate party and public appeared to only ramp up fury from his own benches.