AG百家乐在线官网

Immediately after Rishi Sunak was claiming success for one of his five pledges, stopping the boats, another - on the NHS - was blowing up in his face.

In a disastrous blow for the Conservatives and a massive propaganda coup for Labour, the consultant psychiatrist Dr Dan Poulter is quitting the Tories and defecting to Sir Keir Starmer's party.

He says he's quitting the Tories - and not standing at the next election - to focus on his work as a doctor and support Sir Keir and Labour on NHS policy both before and after the general election.

No wonder Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, was so jubilant. "As a frontline clinician, he's seen the damage that 14 years of Conservative government have done to our NHS," declared Mr Streeting.

Dr Poulter isn't just any backbencher, which is what makes his defection to Labour all the more damaging for the prime minister and the Tory high command.

He's an NHS doctor who's worked in and was a junior health minister from 2012-15 when David Cameron was prime minister.

He introduced language checks for overseas health staff to ensure they spoke adequate levels of English. He also sought to improve NHS procurement processes and reduce bureaucracy.

Significantly, given his shock move now, in 2015 he was critical of Jeremy Hunt's junior doctor contracts and hasn't held a government job since that year.

Dr Poulter, 46, has been MP for Suffolk Central and Ipswich North, an affluent, leafy suburban and rural constituency with more than a fifth of residents over 65, since 2010. He had a majority of 23,391 over Labour at the 2019 election.

In his resignation salvo at the Tories, Dr Poulter says the NHS is "desperately struggling to deliver the care our patients deserve" and "the only cure is a Labour government".

A powerful advocate for Labour on the NHS

Dr Poulter's defection means the Commons majority of 80 won by Boris Johnson in December 2019 is now just 41, roughly half what it was three-and-a-half years ago.

But more than the terrible numbers, bad as they are, it is his threat to support Labour on the NHS in the run-up to the general election that will alarm the Conservatives.

Read more from Sky News:
Tory MP Dan Poulter defects to Labour over NHS 'chaos'
Presenter was 'determined to finish' after becoming unwell live on air
TV doctor struck off for exchanging Botox for sex at his clinic

Alongside the formidable Mr Streeting, the dashing doctor will be a powerful advocate for Labour on the NHS.

Stop the boats?

After the "honeytrap" MP scandal and the fiasco of the "bad people" MP, this calamitous defection from a high-profile and highly-respected MP, Mr Sunak needs to stop the rot in the Conservative Party.

Time's running out. It may be too late.