SIR – Despite Sir Keir Starmer’s dizzy rhetoric about seismic swings and new horizons for Labour (telegraph.co.uk, May 3), the turnout in the Blackpool South by-election was only 32 per cent.
This will be the week from hell for Rishi Sunak and Humza Yousaf. Rishi’s begins with the defection of an MP so anonymous, even he had to google which constituency he represents. Dr Dan Poulton of Toryshire and Suburb has left the Tories for Labour, claiming the Tories are too Rightwing. Well, that’s what happens when you pack your backbenches with liberals. The moment their conscience is compromised, which usually coincides with a dip in the polls, they’re off.
SIR – The most telling aspect of the defection of Dr Dan Poulter – the former Tory minister who crossed the floor on Saturday to join the Labour Party, mere days before the country votes in local elections – is that it demonstrates that there is now no difference between the Conservative and Labour parties. His judgment that Labour may be more competent and committed to these socialist policies is undoubtedly correct, but it does not disguise the bald truth that the Tories have abandoned Conserv
The problem with England, grumble conservatives, is that it hardly exists. We’ve no parliament, no costume, no anthem; even our flag was recently transformed into a multicoloured migraine by the kids at Nike.