The Observer view on Dan Poulter and the failing Conservative government | Observer Editorial

The former Tory health minister has defected to Labour over the crisis in the NHS and has rightly called for an early election

This week, voters across England and Wales will go to the polls in the last set of local elections before the next general election. But one Conservative MP has decided he cannot endorse Rishi Sunak as prime minister: former public health minister Dan Poulter announced this weekend that he is resigning his membership of the party. Poulter, who is also a practising NHS consultant, has delivered a stinging rebuke to Sunak; writing exclusively for the Observer, he says that his firsthand experience of crisis in NHS mental health services has persuaded him that “the only cure is a Labour government”. He will be taking the Labour whip until the next election – which he has said Sunak should call as soon as possible – and he will then stand down as an MP.

Poulter is entirely correct that on the NHS – but also across every area of policy – this is a government that has neglected the huge social and economic challenges facing Britain. Public services are creaking under the strain. From the infected blood scandal, to the victims of Windrush, to the Post Office scandal, ministers have dragged their feet on righting terrible harms inflicted on people by the state. Increasing numbers of Conservative MPs are losing the whip and facing police investigations as a result of allegations of sleaze and corruption.

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