The news that Dr Dan Poulter, the now ex-Conservative MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, has defected to Labour has come as a bit of a shock to many – and let’s face it, how on Earth could it have taken him so long to realise that the current Conservative leadership have no real interest in public services? – but I ought now to admit that the evidence was there as far back as 2010.
As the brand new MP for the constituency, elected that year, he came to the village as part of his “getting to know the patch” efforts – he was an “incomer” from Reigate and Banstead – and I had the opportunity to find out more about his politics. And, in truth, nothing he said then suggested that he would be any less at home in a Clegg-led Liberal Democrat party than in a Cameron-led Conservative Party.
What might have surprised me was that, with an obvious professional alternative – he’ll earn far more working for the NHS and, possibly, in private practice, than he ever would as an MP – he stuck it out in an increasingly alien Conservative Party. And not only that, he voted through a whole plethora of legislation that should surely have troubled him had he remained true to his supposed principles.
But, whilst critics will accuse him of jumping before he’s “pushed” by the electorate in a forthcoming General Election, it should be borne in mind that his constituency isn’t going to targeted by any opposition party and, as I told him fourteen years ago, being the MP there is a “job for life”. It will, as an aside, be an interesting prospect for any Conservative MP looking to do a “chicken run”. Grant Shapps, perhaps?
Sowing the earth with salt…
Meanwhile, this Conservative administration’s efforts to make our country a worse place to live continue. Teacher recruitment a problem? Abolish the “Now Teach” programme, which has successfully brought mature recruits into the sector. Shortage of care workers and nurses? Make the country less attractive by preventing potential vacancy fillers from bringing their families, even if they can overcome the financial barriers created.
The seemingly only “raison d’etre” for this Government is to make it as difficult as possible for any incoming administration to do anything. Not “anything different”, just anything. So, promising to spend £75 billion more on defence (actually it’s only £20 billion or so but who’s counting?) dares Labour to match it and cut spending elsewhere (and where exactly?) to do so. And whilst cutting 72,000 civil servants to fund it might be superficially popular, what else don’t you want civil servants to do?
The way that this country is run and managed needs a major overhaul, and that requires investment in public sector technology and skills (amongst other things). I’m not holding my breath…
What is it about Conservatives and Singapore?
I had a look at Conservative Home to see how their collective nervous breakdown was going – to save you the trouble, their readers don’t think that they’re right-wing enough – and noticed another article commending aspects of Singapore as a model to be adopted by the Conservative Party.
Really? 75% public housing? Effective one-party state? High levels of state intervention in the economy? In other words, most of the policies that Conservatives increasingly shy away from, although the one-party state concept probably appeals. And, for a political movement that talks about individual freedoms and liberties, Singapore doesn’t look like the sort of place that would make them comfortable. Unless of course, all that talk of freedom is just that, talk…
* Mark Valladares is the Monday Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice.
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9 Comments
It occurs to me that Clegg would have been quite happy in the Conservative party, but thought he would do better in the LibDems.
Would Clegg have been happy in the Conservative party? Maybe in the Cameron era but at the time he was picking a tribe – he became an MEP in 1999 so must have been a member by 1998 – the Tory party was a different beast. More like it is now, only a bit less cavalier about the economy.
I find it strange that someone can go from being a Conservative to a Labourite. The differences are stark as they are both class based parties essentially and Dr Poulter should have considered being a Liberal Democrat in the same way as Dr Philip Lee, the former MP for Bracknell.
On Nick Clegg, Jenny could hardly be more wrong. In the late 1990s Leon Brittan who was an EU Trade Commissioner employed Nick Clegg as a European Union policy adviser and speechwriter in his private office. I think that around this time Brittan suggested to him that he could have a future as a Conservative MEP. Quite clearly it would have been much, much easier for Clegg to have a career in the Conservatives. No one who is career motivated can see our Party as springboard for life, whatever we think of our MPs, it is obvious to me that political motivations override personal advancement. ¨
I do not know the exact basis of Nick Clegg’s political adherence to the Party and may be fair to put this into question (it is possible he was a committed centrist for example), however I think that the same applies to many if not most of our current parliamentary members. I would like to see more of our leading politicians making the principled case for Modern Liberalism.
David Symonds:
Our low polling at a time when the Conservative vote is declining shows that very many are making the direct switch while ignoring our Party. Obviously Starmer is successfully making a pitch for the centre ground, while carefully eschewing any ideological position. Our leadership appears to be shadowing Starmer. We are in effect a shadow of the Labour Party.
I do not like this strategy, but it could work so long as Tory support remains low, however if, as I suspect likely, the Tory vote moderately recovers in the run up to an election, we are may well end up with only a few more seats than we have now (- perhaps in the low twenties?). Incidentally, Dr Poulter has his own particular motive: he wants to have a role as an NHS advisor for the next Labour health minister.
Jenny Barnes 29th Apr ’24 – 9:13am…..It occurs to me that Clegg would have been quite happy in the Conservative party, but thought he would do better in the LibDems….
I agree! Who can forget the “If we keep doing this we won’t find anything to bloody disagree on in the bloody TV debate.” Anyway, far better to be a big fish in a small pond, etc..
David Symonds 29th Apr ’24 – 9:54am……..I find it strange that someone can go from being a Conservative to a Labourite. The differences are stark as they are both class based parties…..
Strange then that most relevant articles on LDV complain that there is little or no differences between Labour under Starmer and Sunak’s Tories..
@ expats,
“Strange then that most relevant articles on LDV complain that there is little or no differences between Labour under Starmer and Sunak’s Tories..”
It may seem odd but it’s true.
We would never have voted for Starmer to become leader if he’d been honest about his intentions. He’s astute enough to have known this. The Starmer who stood as a bit of a lefty prior to the Feb’20 leadership election is quite a different person from the Starmer we’ve seen since.
Whether or not Lib Dems agree with his new right wing stance isn’t the point. The Democratic process does rely on all politicians to not win elections by deception. I know we all take politicians’ pledges and promises with a large pinch of salt but Starmer has taken it to a new level. I felt I had no alternative to resign from Labour whilst a fraudster is in charge. If he’d won by fair means I’d have stayed even though I disagree with his centre right political stance.
There’s more discussion about this on Katharine’s thread:
https://www.libdemvoice.org/tell-the-young-look-to-the-lib-dems-not-labour-for-progressive-politics-75045.html#comment-591539
@ David Symonds,
“I find it strange that someone can go from being a Conservative to a Labourite. The differences are stark as they are both class based parties…..”
They probably can’t if a choice of party is about what it originally stood for. However, the Labour Party has been hijacked by a right wing faction whose real leader I would say was Peter Mandelson with Morgan McSweeney as a key lieutenant. Keir Starmer is their front man. Just why these individuals would ever want to be part of a party which describes itself as ‘Democratic Socialist’ might seem a mystery. The only explanation is that their mission is to prevent it being exactly that.
The accusation from the left is that Starmer helped sabotage the 2019 election and was planning to use a Labour defeat to unseat Jeremy Corbyn:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/feb/24/starmer-set-up-own-labour-leadership-team-six-months-before-corbyns-2019-defeat#img-2
I first met Nick Clegg at a Brussels Lib Dems informal dinner whilst he was working for Brittan. This was before we adopted a proportional system for the EP elections and he had already made his political choice.
I don’t agree that we are a Labour shadow. What we are seeing is both Labour and Lib Dems being wary of spooking the electorate. The Tory strategy will be to sow fear during the election campaign and neither party wants to give them ammunition. We have very different areas of vulnerability in this respect