Tory MP Christian Wakeford defects to the Labour Party in first brick to fall from Johnson’s red wall

Wakeford had written a letter of no confidence in the Prime Minister.

Wakeford

Tory MP Christian Wakeford has defected to the Labour Party, just as Boris Johnson headed to PMQs this morning, in what is another blow for a prime minister counting down his final hours.

Christian Wakeford – first elected to the sear of Bury South in 2019, has called the prime minister’s partygate scandal “embarrassing” in a series of damning comments last week.

The BBC reported yesterday that Mr Wakeford had written a letter of no confidence in the Prime Minister.

It comes as Johnson faces the increasing likelihood of a leadership challenge, with letters of no confidence coming in from all wings of the Tory party, and sent to the 1922 committee of Tory backbench MPs.

In a letter of resignation to the prime minister, Wakeford said he believed that Johnson was “incapable of offering the leadership and government this country deserves”.

Wakeford also said in the letter to Johnson: “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”.

He also added: “Under Keir Starmer, the Labour Party is back firmly in the centre of British politics, in touch with working people, and ready to provide an alternative government that this country can be proud of, and not embarrassed by.

“My decision is about much more than your leadership and the disgraceful way you have conducted yourself in recent weeks.”

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

Comments are closed.