Christian Wakeford, MP for Bury South, has sensationally defected from the Conservatives to Labour - just minutes before Prime Minister’s Questions.

Wakeford was one of the Tory MPs first elected in the party’s 2019 landslide victory - but now, with Boris Johnson’s political career hanging in the balance, has defected to the Labour Party instead.

He becomes the first Conservative MP to defect to Labour in 15 years. But who exactly is Christian Wakeford, why has he switched sides - and what happens when an MP defects from one party to another?

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Who is Christian Wakeford and why has he defected?

Christian Wakeford is the Member of Parliament for Bury South, a marginal seat in Greater Manchester. Elected as a Conservative, he has now defected to the Labour Party.

In an angry resignation letter, Wakeford informed Boris Johnson that his decision to defect was “about much more than your leadership and the disgraceful way you have conducted yourself in recent weeks”.

“I have concluded that the policies of the Conservative government that you lead are doing nothing to help the people of my constituency and indeed are only making the struggles they face on a daily basis worse,” he wrote.

Born in 1984, Wakeford obtained a degree in politics from Lancaster University before subsequently undertaking a chemistry degree with the Open University.

Wakeford was elected as a Tory councillor for Pendle Hill on Lancashire County Council and served as leader of the council’s Conservative group from 2019 to 2020. He also worked as an insurance broker before going into politics.

What is Christian Wakeford's majority in Bury South?

Christian Wakeford was elected as Conservative MP for Bury South at the 2019 general election by a wafer-thin margin, with just 402 votes separating him from Labour candidate Lucy Burke.

Bury South - mostly a fairly affluent, suburban constituency - is a key marginal seat, though the constituency’s boundaries are due to be redrawn under the impending boundary review.

What happens when an MP defects?

When an MP defects from one party to another, this is referred to as “crossing the floor”. Scores of MPs defected to other parties in the last Parliament, mainly over Brexit.

Any MP who decides to leave a party will typically inform their leader and the party whips, but there is no formal process which MPs switching between parties have to observe.

Defecting MPs are usually welcomed with great enthusiasm by the party they join, as it can be very embarrassing for the party they’ve just left - particularly if the MP in question is a senior one.

Who was the last Tory MP to defect to Labour?

Prior to Christian Wakeford’s defection, the last Tory MP to cross the floor and defect to the Labour Party was Quentin Davies.

In 2007, Davies joined Labour after 20 years as a Conservative MP in protest at the direction of the Tory Party under David Cameron.

He subsequently served as a junior defence minister under Gordon Brown before standing down as an MP. Davies now sits in the House of Lords as a Labour peer.

Before that, Shaun Woodward famously defected from the Conservative Party to Labour in 1999, reportedly becoming the only Labour MP with his own butler. His former Tory colleague Robert Jackson also crossed the floor in 2005.

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