Would Labour MPs really defect to the Tories?

A Sunday newspaper reports that three Labour MPs are thinking of joining the Conservatives. An unconvinced John Rentoul considers the likelihood and explores some of the famous defections over the past few decades

‘Behind you, Sir Keir’ (Reuters)

Three Labour MPs “decided” during last week’s conference in Brighton to “open lines of communication” with Conservative whips about switching parties, according to the The Mail on Sunday. It seems unlikely, on the face of it, that MPs who maintained their allegiance to the Labour Party during the five years of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership would decide that Keir Starmer was such a bad leader that a Tory government would be preferable, but strange things do happen in politics.

The Mail on Sunday reported that the MPs are “in despair at Sir Keir’s failure to make inroads into Boris Johnson’s opinion poll lead” – as well as at Angela Rayner, deputy Labour leader, calling the Tories “racist” and “scum”.

If it did happen, it would be a sensational event. The last Labour-to-Tory defection was Reg Prentice, who was Labour education secretary in 1974-75, switched to the Tories in 1977, and served as a junior social security minister in Margaret Thatcher’s government for two years.