Sir Keir Starmer is celebrating the third Conservative defection to the Labor Party in just over a month.
Mark Logan, who was elected Conservative MP for Bolton North East in 2019, told Sky News he is quitting the Tories and urging people to vote Labor in the July 4 general election.
In recent months, he has been a fierce critic of the government’s policy on Gaza and now calls on the United Kingdom to recognize Palestine as a country.
Watch live:
Reaction to defection and general election updates
Northern Irish-born Logan, 40, won his seat from the Labor Party in the 2019 general election with a slim majority of just 378. It had been Labor since 1997 but was previously held by the Conservatives.
A former UK diplomat serving in China and fluent in Mandarin and Japanese, his dramatic move follows secret talks with Labor leader Sir Alan Campbell and members of Sir Keir’s inner circle.
Logan was expected to defend the seat at the general election, but after his surprise defection he hopes to become a Labor candidate in another constituency.
More politics:
Abbott accuses Starmer of ‘singling out’ Labor leftists
Research suggests trouble ahead for Starmer if times get tough
In a “personal statement” on Commons letterhead, written just before parliament was dissolved on Thursday, Logan referred to the Labor Party’s 1997 election anthem, Things Can Only Get Better.
He wrote: “Work is back and given the way things are, I believe things can only get better.
“After much reflection during my first term in parliament, brought to a head by the call for early elections last week, I have concluded that we need a new government and I believe the UK will be best served if that government is a Labor Government.
“We need renewed enthusiasm and optimism, both in tone and policy, and I believe we are already seeing this through Keir Starmer and the team.
“I am resigning from the Conservative Party with immediate effect. Regrettably, therefore, I will not be contesting our constituency in the next general election.”
He concluded: “The first time I voted, I voted Labour. The next time I vote it will be a Labor vote.”
Keep up with the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
As well as the obvious humiliation for Rishi Sunak, the latest defection is also embarrassing for the prime minister because Logan is a junior member of the government, a parliamentary private secretary to ministers at the Department for Work and Pensions.
He becomes the third Conservative to defect to the Labor Party since the end of April, after Dan Poulter It is Natalie Elphickeand the fourth since the last election, after Christian Wakeford in January 2022.
Dr Dan Poulter also defected to the Labor Party. Photo: PA
Since Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7 last year, Mr Logan – whose constituency has a large Muslim population – has been increasingly critical of UK policy and the actions of the Israeli government during its response in Gaza.
In February’s controversial House of Commons debate on an SNP motion demanding an immediate ceasefire, he dramatically broke with his own party and said Israel had “gone too far”.
Defying government policy, he told MPs: “I can no longer, in good conscience, continue to support in public the line we have taken on this side of the House, regrettably.”
Tap here to catch up on Politics at Jack at Sam’s wherever you get your podcasts
In a television interview in March, Logan also accused Lee Anderson of Islamophobia and said he should apologize for statements he made about London Mayor Sadiq Khan after defecting from the Conservatives to reform the UK.
And in his final speech in the House of Commons on Gaza, two days before Sunak’s shock general election announcement, Logan furiously challenged Andrew Mitchell, the deputy foreign secretary.
“My constituents in Bolton are furious today,” he declared at the time, “because they have seen from the International Criminal Court that there is evidence that ‘acts were committed… to use starvation as a method of war’, along with violence.
“Evidence of collective punishment of the civilian population of Gaza and evidence that Israel intentionally and systematically deprived the civilian population in all parts of Gaza of objects indispensable to human survival.
“Being on the right side of history doesn’t matter, will we ensure we are on the right side of the present?”
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
