Defection fever has hit the Commons… and Keir Starmer should be delighted

MPs who cross the floor are a rare breed, so the growing clamour to swap parties ahead of a general election – coupled with rumours about who might be next – recalls the heady mood that heralded Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide, says John Rentoul

Dr Dan Poulter said he could no longer look his NHS colleagues in the eye and remain a Tory MP – so has joined Labour (PA)

When Alan Howarth, the moderate former Tory minister, defected to Labour in 1995, he was like a messenger from the future, heralding Tony Blair’s landslide.

More people today remember Shaun Woodward, who defected in a blaze of publicity two years into the Labour government, possibly because he went on to serve in Gordon Brown’s cabinet as Northern Ireland secretary. But it was Howarth, who served as a junior education minister during Blair’s first term, who was the first rumble that warned of the coming Labour earthquake.

This time, there have already been two defections from the Tories to Labour. Christian Wakeford, the MP for Bury South, a marginal northern seat, who crossed the floor of parliament in early 2022, was an early sign that the tectonic plates were moving in Keir Starmer’s favour.