Christian Wakeford’s dramatic defection made for high drama in the Commons

There was real vitriol towards Wakeford on show from the Tory benches on Wednesday, writes Andrew Woodcock

Few side-switching MPs have gone on to play significant roles in their new parties (PA)

For high drama in the Commons chamber, not much beats a defection, and Christian Wakeford’s leap from the Conservatives to Labour was no exception. The Bury South MP, sporting a Union flag mask, was led to his new place on the opposition benches to roars of approval from Labour MPs and welcomed with relish by Sir Keir Starmer as Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) began.

Crossing the floor is rare enough in Westminster to be treated as a spectacular coup by the new MP’s party, who will often have spent months identifying possible targets among disgruntled opponents and coaxing them to their new home.

And while the spurned party will of course feign indifference – Tory backbencher Lee Anderson’s response to Wakeford’s move was simply “good riddance to bad rubbish” – there’s no doubt that the loss of an MP is seen as a sign of a leader’s crumbling authority. A defector may be a rat to former colleagues, but rats only leave ships which are sinking, Westminster sages note.

When the dust settles, however, it’s surprising to see how few defections have a serious impact on politics in the long run. Of course, there are exceptions. The departure of Tory MPs Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless for Ukip in 2014 arguably set in train the sequence of events which led to the UK voting to leave the European Union (EU) two years later.

But few side-switching MPs have gone on to play significant roles in their new parties. Few retain their seats in subsequent elections, and for some –  like Robert Jackson leaving the Tories for Labour in 2005 and Quentin Davies doing the same in 2007, or Brian Sedgemore departing Labour for Liberal Democrats in 2005 – crossing the floor is the last major political action before a planned retirement.

By contrast, Alan Howarth, who in 1995 became the first Tory MP to switch directly to Labour, was able to stay on in parliament after being helped into a more winnable seat, and has the unique distinction of serving in the administrations of both Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, before going on to become a Labour peer.

John Major’s former communications chief Shaun Woodward also swapped seats to preserve his MP status after moving from the Tories to Labour in 1999, and is the only defector in modern times to be appointed to the cabinet in his new party.

Mr Wakeford sought out Howarth for advice before taking his momentous step, and was warned that the process would be “rough” for him, his family and his political team.

An individual MP may feel that ideologically he or she fits better in a different party – often saying that the party has moved away from the ideals which initially made it attractive. But that is a very different thing from severing the personal ties which have built up with constituency activists, advisers and parliamentary colleagues over years of battling together.

There was real vitriol towards Wakeford on show from the Tory benches on Wednesday. And regardless of the open arms offered by the leadership, the defector cannot be guaranteed an equally warm welcome from his or her new constituency party.

Bury South hasn’t yet chosen a candidate for the next election, but it goes without saying that there will be people who’ve worked long and hard for the party locally who will think they deserve a shot at it, rather than someone who until a few days ago was hurling abuse at them and everything they stand for. Left-wingers in the Momentum movement were quick to list the Labour policies Mr Wakeford had opposed in his previous life and insist it made him unfit to represent the party.

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Mr Wakeford is unusual among defectors in crossing the floor very early in his parliamentary career and doing so in a constituency which he stands a good chance of turning into a safe seat for his new party. Bury South had been Labour for 22 years when he scraped home by a wafer-thin 402 votes in the Tory landslide election of 2019.

Barring a spectacular turnaround in Boris Johnson’s popularity, it would have taken a miracle for him to hold on to it as a Tory at the next election in 2023 or 2024. As a Labour candidate, it should be a relatively easy ride for the 37-year-old to secure a job for life – something which his critics will doubtless say was the motive for his dramatic conversion all along.

Yours,

Andrew Woodcock

Political editor