Former Tory Minister Is Helping Labour Prepare For Power

Exclusive: A former Conservative minister is advising Labour Party shadow ministers as part of their ongoing preparations for government.

Nick Boles, the former Tory MP for Grantham and Stamford, is currently providing informal advice to members of Keir Starmer's Shadow Cabinet on preparing for power, PoliticsHome understands.

Boles, who was a Conservative MP between 2010 and 2019, served as a planning minister in the government of former Tory prime minister David Cameron.

He also helped Cameron's own preparations for office in the run-up to the 2010 general election by taking part in the opposition Tory party's access talks with the civil service.

Before entering Westminster politics, he co-founded conservative think tank Policy Exchange.

At the beginning of this month, the Labour Party confirmed that handover talks with senior civil servants in Whitehall had started ahead of the next general election, which opinion polls and recent by-election results indicate the opposition is likely to win. 

A Labour source said "leaning on the expertise" of figures like Boles is an "important" element of ensuring the party is ready to govern.

“Keir’s priority when he became leader was to change the Labour Party and put it back in the service of working people," they told PoliticsHome.
 
“It speaks to the progress of those changes that former Conservatives – including former ministers – are now switching to Labour.
 
“While there’s still much work to be done to win a general election, we owe it to the public to ensure we’re prepared to govern given we’d inherit a complete mess from the Tories. Leaning on the expertise of those who have been at the heart of government is an important part of that work.”

In September 2022, Boles announced that