Kenneth Clarke is latest member of the new group: Conservatives for Keir

We should expect more defections to Labour, writes John Rentoul

Lord Clarke has a sharp political sense – although it was never sharp enough to get him elected leader of the Conservative Party (Jonathan Hordle/Shutterstock)

Kenneth Clarke is in danger of sealing his national treasure status by saying that Labour is ready for government and that it may be time to give the Conservatives “a rest” from hard work of running the country.

The former chancellor, who most recently served in David Cameron’s coalition government as justice secretary – when Cameron joked that it was easier to agree common policies with the Liberal Democrats than with him – was interviewed yesterday by Andrew Marr on LBC.

Asked by Marr how he would feel about a Labour government led by Keir Starmer, Lord Clarke said: “I’d be disappointed, because if I had a vote, which as a peer I don’t, I would have voted for the Conservatives, but I’d feel as I felt when Tony Blair took over.”

He explained that he felt conflicting emotions in 1997: “angry” because he was out of office when he thought he was doing a good job on the economy, but that “it was entirely predictable, and I blamed my own side for it, the stupid warfare we’d been having over Europe and Maastricht”.

He also felt that Blair “was the person with the capability and personality to be prime minister and not disgrace the country”. High implied praise for Starmer: that he would be capable of doing the job and not disgrace the country. Being Ken Clarke, though, he didn’t leave it there, and added mischievously: “And it’s probably about time the social democrats had a turn and give us a rest.”

That is the bit that practising politicians can never say out loud, which is what makes it fun, but it doesn’t actually make sense. “A good election to lose” is always a counsel of despair, an admission that one’s own party has lost the right to govern; in which case he should just come out and say that it would be in the national interest for Labour to win.

“It’s the other lot’s turn” is an even worse argument, suggesting that the electorate could be replaced by a pendulum, or a stopwatch: “Time’s up: time for the other lot to have a go.”

Leaving aside Lord Clarke’s undemocratic sense of mischief, however, the significance of his words is that he is one of a new group in politics: Conservatives for Keir. The first, and most significant so far, was Christian Wakeford, the MP for Bury South, who crossed the floor of the House of Commons a year ago next week after the revelations about lockdown parties in Boris Johnson’s Downing Street.

Since then, of course, the push factor for Tory defections has lessened, in that Johnson is no longer party leader, but the pull factor from Labour has increased, as Starmer continues his steady if unshowy journey from the leadership manifesto on which he was elected.

Recently, George Osborne used similar language to Clarke, one of his predecessors as chancellor, telling The Times: “I now feel that, with Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt and Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, we have two sets of people who are sensible and have integrity and are more than capable of governing the country. I’m still a Conservative so I would rather have Rishi and Jeremy, but it wouldn’t be terrible for the country if it were Keir and Rachel.”

On Monday, Claire Perry O’Neill, who had been a minister in Theresa May’s government and was briefly Johnson’s president of the climate summit, Cop26, announced that she had resigned from the Tory party. She hasn’t joined the Labour Party (yet), but she praised Starmer for his “sober, fact-driven, competent political leadership”.

This prompted some commentators to write about “Cameroons for Labour”, but Lord Clarke’s words suggest that the mood for change extends beyond Friends of Dave. Lord Clarke has a sharp political sense – although it was never sharp enough to get him elected leader of the Conservative Party – and a happy knack of saying the unsayable. Except that “Keir Starmer is going to be prime minister” is becoming increasingly sayable.

We should expect more defections.