Tory Minister Stephen Dorrell says it would be a “dream” to see Keir Starmer replace Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister.
Dorrell, who served as Health Secretary under John Major, told GB News: “My dream outcome is Keir Starmer as Prime Minister, because I think he'd be better placed to do some short term things than the current Tory Party.
“But importantly… with a very important qualification. The ideal outcome is Keir Starmer leading a minority Labour government but then has to deal with the point that our political system is broken.”
Dorrell, who was a member of the Tories for 49 years but is now a Lib Dem supporter, explained why he was in favour of Starmer.
Stephen Dorrell says he is backing the Labour leader
GB News
He told Gloria De Piero: “I think Keir Starmer is in better control of the dangerous factions in the Labour Party than Rishi Sunak is in control of the dangerous factions of the Tory Party.”
Explaining why he’d turned his back on the Tories, he said: “I didn't leave my party. My party left me. I was actually a member of the Conservative Party for 49 years. I joined it when Ted Heath was leading Britain into Europe.
"I left it when Theresa May was leading Britain out of Europe. And the two things are connected. I was at the time that I left the Tory party, I was chair of the European movement because I passionately believe that Brexit is a fundamental mistake.
“I believe the Tory party is responsible for an extremely damaging version of Brexit. People voted for Brexit but they didn't vote for the Brexit we’ve got. There were a wide range of Brexits on offer and we’ve chosen the most damaging, or rather I should be more, much more precise, the faction that currently controls the Tory party chose the most damaging option of Brexit.”
Asked what he’d tackle first if he was Health Secretary today, Dorrell said: "I think the highest priority for Steve Barclay, is to sort out the pay issues and to re-engage with the workforce of the NHS.
"He needs to set out his plan for how the work, the workforce of the NHS is going to be developed over the coming period, beyond the end of this parliament.
“Like any Health Secretary, I had an occasionally testy relationship with the trade unions.
"But what I would like to think is that whether it's the BMA and the representatives of the medical profession, or the RCN and the other nursing unions, my doors were always open. I was always happy to talk to them.”
Stephen Dorrell was a member of the Tories for 49 years but is now a Lib Dem supporter
GB News
Commenting on the lessons which can be learned from the Matt Hancock WhatsApp scandal he added: “The first is the simplest one, which is that all politicians should remember that when they write words in electronic media, they are part of the public record that will live forever.
"The second point is that given that we have access to those private messages, I think we should screen out some of the sillier things, the most obviously silly things that are said in those messages.
“Government is a public process and the decisions that are made by the government. When the inquiry reported on the Iraq war, it said that one of the key failings was what it’s called sofa government. But what we've got in these WhatsApp messages is exactly the same phenomenon in the middle of the pandemic.
"There is a process in government for a reason. It is a public process and I think these WhatsApp messages and the mistakes that they led to, reinforce again the dangers of sofa government.”