Central Suffolk and North Ipswich now have a Labour MP, following Dan Poulter’s dramatic resignation and application to join the Labour Party.
In his letter to Prime Minister Sunak, Dan wrote:
“I am writing to let you know that, after deep reflection and much heart-searching, I have decided, in all professional conscience, that I can no longer continue as a member of the Conservative Party.
I have therefore today resigned my membership of the Party and will not be standing for re-election at the General Election.
As you know, alongside my work as an MP for the past 14 years, I have always worked as an NHS hospital doctor.
Throughout the ongoing junior doctors strike, I have spent more than twenty night-shifts, over the last year or so, working as a mental health doctor in a busy Hospital A&E Department.
It has been a truly life changing experience. Working on the front line of a health service under impossible strain has left me, at times, struggling to look my NHS colleagues, my patients and my constituents in the eye.
It is this that has led me to resign from the Conservative Party to focus on my work as a doctor and, at the same time, I will be supporting the Labour Party to deliver a better NHS.
Regrettably, I have come to the conclusion that only the Labour Party has the trust and the will to restore a failing health service which is currently unable to deliver the care patients need and deserve.
Naturally, I shall continue, as diligently as I always have done, to serve my constituents until the next election, although in the interim I will not be sitting on the Government benches in the House of Commons.
I would respectfully ask and urge that you call a General Election as soon as you feel able.
In leaving the Conservative Party at this juncture, I wish you personally all the very best for the future, and hope that you will understand the reasons for my decision.”
