Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke has defected to the Labour Party, saying the Tories “have become a byword for incompetence and division”.
In a statement released just as PMQs was starting, the MP for Dover said the key factors for her decision were housing and border security. She also accused Rishi Sunak of “broken promises” and abandoning key pledges.
Her time with Labour will be short-lived though, as Labour will retain their existing candidate in Dover and Deal at the next general election and Mrs Elphicke will stand down. The constituency replaces Dover, where Mrs Elphicke had a majority of 12,278 at the last election, following boundary changes.
But there was widespread derision over her move, as only last April, Mrs Elphicke wrote in an article for the Express that Labour had “no plan of their own to tackle illegal immigration” and described the government’s Rwanda plan as “world-leading”.
Asked whether she had changed her mind on Labour’s immigration policies, Mrs Elphicke said Mr Sunak had not stopped small boat crossings and Labour would tackle this issue.
Both the MP and Labour insisted she had not been offered a peerage to defect but she will be given an unpaid Labour role advising the party on housing policy. Multiple sources claim that Labour whips, who are responsible for enforcing discipline, expressed concerns about admitting Mrs Elphicke to the party, though Labour denied this.
Elphicke should have “no place in a Labour Party committed to progressive values and working-class people”
It is a stab to the heart for many of her local supporters who voted for her due to her Conservative policies. It also raises the question of MPs defecting and if there should be a by-election, considering the local support voted for a different party.
It is not the first contreversary to strike her political carrer, when in 2019 her then husband Charlie, stood down as Dover and Deals MP, after he was charged with three counts of sexual assault against two women. She was elected as the MP for the seat at the 2019 general election with a majority of 12,278.
After his conviction in July 2020 for sexual assault, she announced that they had separated after a 25-year marriage. They have a son and daughter. In July 2020, she sold the story of her divorce to The Sun tabloid newspaper for £25,000.
