Former Tory minister turns her back on Sunak saying she will vote LABOUR at next election

Anna Soubry/Rishi Sunak

Former Conservative Minister Anna Soubry will vote Labour at the next election, she has announced

PA
Millie Cooke

By Millie Cooke


Published: 12/10/2023

- 11:38

Updated: 12/10/2023

- 11:39

Anna Soubry's public show of support for Labour came after Sir Keir Starmer pledged to deliver a 'decade of national renewal'

Former Conservative Minister Anna Soubry will vote Labour at the next election, she has announced.

The former Conservative MP served as minister for small business, industry and enterprise from May 2015 to July 2016.


Writing on X, she said: "I will be voting Labour.

"With Keir Starmer as leader they have the values and competence to deliver the change our country desperately needs."

WATCH: Starmer promises a 'decade of national renewal'


She attached a cutting of a newspaper article about Starmer's speech, delivered at the Labout Conference in Liverpool on Tuesday.

Soubry quit the Conservative Party in February 2019 in response to Theresa May's handling of Brexit.

After her exit, she helped set up the Independent Group for Change - later called Change UK - with MPs including seven from the Labour Party.

The party, which Soubry served as the leader of, disbanded in December 2019 after failing to win seats at the 2019 general election.

Soubry's public show of support for Labour came after Starmer delivered a speech on the main stage of the Conservative Conference, in which he pledged to deliver a "decade of national renewal".

The Leader of the Opposition promised an "entirely new approach to politics", promising to fix "tomorrow's challenges, today".

Starmer said: "Today we turn the page, answer the question ‘Why Labour?’ with a plan for a Britain built to last.

“With higher growth, safer streets, cheap British power in your home, more opportunity in your community, the NHS off its knees. A Britain with its future back.

“It will require an entirely new approach to politics – Mission Government, new priorities, totally focused on the interests of working people, five national missions all fixed on a single-minded purpose to govern for the long-term.

“End the Tory disease of ‘sticking plaster politics’ with a simple Labour philosophy that together we fix tomorrow’s challenges, today.”

The Leader of the Opposition said the "age of insecurity" has been "loaded onto the backs of working people".

He admitted that there is "no magic wand", adding: "A decade of national renewal. That is what it will take.

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Anna Soubry

The former Conservative MP served as minister for small business, industry and enterprise from May 2015 to July 2016

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"We will need ambition, determination, patience absolutely. But also bravery. Because it is brave to reject the hope of the easy answer.

"Courageous to choose instead the hope of the hard road.

"But if we give Britain the certain destination. If we walk step by step with working people we can bulldoze through the barriers in their way."

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