Bury MP Christian Wakeford reflects on leaving Tories to join Labour

The shock move was revealed by the Bury Times just minutes before Prime Minister’s Questions on January 19, 2022, a session in which he sat behind his leader Keir Starmer, who welcomed him to the party.

Now, 12 months on, Mr Wakeford has reflected on that monumental day of his career and how tough it was making the decision to cross the floor to leave Boris Johnson's government.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer with Bury South MP Christian Wakeford in his office in the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday January 19, 2022 (Image: UK Parliament)

He said: “From that day, which was incredibly stressful, how it started and going into the chamber and physically crossing the floor and taking my glasses off to avoid seeing former colleagues and friends to then going to Kyiv and speaking at a conference in Ukraine a couple of days later, was very much a whirlwind at the time.

"But I think once the dust had settled and the emotion as to what it meant had settled down it’s actually been a really good year.

“It’s been a lot of firsts.

"It was my first ever Labour party conference which went really warmly, first constituency Labour party meetings, parliamentary Labour party meetings, getting promoted a couple of times, it’s been a really, really good year.

“I think we’re setting a strong narrative going forward but looking back there’s absolutely no regrets.”

Despite his enjoyment in working for Labour, the 38-year-old, who was elected in 2019, said he has faced some criticism from locals about his defection, mostly from Conservative voters who said they felt unrepresented in the community.

In reaction to his critics, he said: “But I wasn’t just elected to represent Conservative voters, I was elected to represent an entire constituency.

“I think seeing how bad the government has got and progressed to get even worse under Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, a lot of people who may not have agreed certainly got to understand it by that point.

“We’re now in a position where we have a government which can’t really deliver, quite how it’s going to last for another 18 months I really don’t know.

“There was a bit of pushback but overall that’s settled down quite a lot and it's now just a case of getting on with the job back in my constituency and down here in Westminster.”

It was Labour who actually approached Mr Wakeford around the time of the Conservative party conference in 2021.

Despite him reaching the conclusion that he wanted to leave the Tories, he said it was difficult to deal with the emotional impact it had on him.

Mr Wakeford wondered what effect the move would have on friendships and those he worked with.

He said: “From that point it was very much a case of this is going to happen just when not if and that fateful day on January 19 last year where we decided it was going to take place then and the rest is history."

The MP now feels much more settled and is working hard to tackle a number of issues for the good of his constituents. 

He added: “A year on its obviously all settled down but in regards to emotionally and mental health I’m in a much better place.

“I think that I was trying to go out and defend the government on a daily basis when I just didn’t believe them, so not having to do that and just being able to stand up and vote for things I actually believe in and have a party that’s supporting me on things like alcohol harm or literacy rates which are things I’m very passionate about.

“It’s actually really refreshing, and we’ve achieved quite a lot.

“We’re still pushing relations with the Jewish community, we’re still seeing progress with the regeneration of Radcliffe, hopefully we’ll see Prestwich move forward as well.

“I think whether it’s those local relationships with sports clubs, charities, I’m still here and those conversations and relationships really are strengthening.”