Right-winger defects to Labour in 'shameless' deal with Keir Starmer

Tory turncoat Natalie Elphicke and Keir Starmer faced outrage from left and right over their “shameless” political pact.

The right-winger abandoned her party to join Labour just seconds before Prime Minister’s questions to land a brutal blow on Rishi Sunak.

But the defection of one of the Conservative party’s most hardline MPs to the opposition was met with deep scepticism from all sides.

Senior Tory Bob Seely questioned which one had been the most shabby in agreeing to the deal.

He said: “This is an MP who has spent months attacking Keir Starmer and Labour over immigration, then decides she wants Labour’s open borders.

“This is a Labour leader who refuses to meet his own MP Rosie Duffield because she stands up for women’s rights, but finds time to meet a Tory turncoat. I don’t know which one of them is more shameless.”

Conservative MP Paul Bristow said his former colleague had been one of the most right-wing in the party.

He said: “As someone who regularly espouses views on immigration that would make Nigel Farage blush, how Nathalie has made the journey to Labour boggles the mind?

“Will she abandon everything she has said and thought on controlled borders for five years and shamelessly adopt Labour’s open border plan?

“Will she be debating immigration with colleague MPs who think any form of border control is racist?

“How can anyone trust a party who would welcome someone who gas attacked them so viciously in the past?”

The decision was met with as much incredulity in Labour circles, with former party leader Lord Kinnock told Radio 4 urged the party to be “choosy” about who it admits to its ranks.

He said “It’s a very broad church but churches have walls and there are limits.

“Ms Elphicke has got to decide whether she is committed to the programme and principles of the Labour Party, broadly defined, generously defined with great liberal intentions, but we are a political party and not a debating club.”

John McDonnell, a former shadow chancellor, told LBC Radio the defection “would have strained the generosity of spirit of John the Baptist”.

James Schneider, former communications director for Jeremy Corbyn, said: “It shows there is no principle on the back of the membership card that Keir Starmer won’t trample over in his rush to be indistinguishable from the Tories.

“On all the major issues, Britain is now a one party state; but with our traditional British eccentricity, we have two of them.”

One Labour aide welcomed the move, saying Sir Keir is a **** but that is a good thing because it shows he is absolutely determined to do what it takes to become Prime Minister.

The insider added: “Natalie Elphicke’s defection has messed with Tory heads. They won’t be able to work out who will jump next.”

One Tory minister was overheard telling an MP that they were expecting another defection, adding “Labour is playing a good game”.

Mr Sunak was already facing a difficult day as he faced MPs in the Commons for the first time since difficult local election results.

The Prime Minister also meet with backbenchers to discuss the losses in detail with his election strategists Isaac Levido.

He told them that while the results were “disappointing” Labour fell short of where it needs to be for a resounding victory.

Ms Elphicke crossed the floor in the Commons just moments before PMQs and sat behind Sir Keir, who hailed her defection as another indication of how he had changed the Labour Party.

She said the “key deciding factors” in her defection were housing issues and “the safety and security of our borders”.

Speaking to reporters in Sir Keir’s parliamentary office later, she said: “In 2019, the Conservatives stood on a manifesto that was very much centre ground, but under Rishi Sunak they’ve abandoned the centre ground and broken many election promises.

“Meanwhile, under Keir Starmer, Labour have changed. And I think that change is going to bring a much better future for our country, and that’s why I was so keen to join the Labour Party and play my part in bringing that important future forward.”

The comments come in stark contrast to an article the Dover MP wrote in the Daily Express a year ago warning Labour cannot be trusted on immigration and calling the party leader “Sir Softie”.

Ms Elphicke is standing down at the general election and denied that she had been offered a peerage by Labour.

The MP is taking on an unpaid role working on housing policy with Labour.

Sir Keir urged Tory voters to follow Natalie Elphicke to his party and dodged a question about whether Labour was in talks with other Conservative MPs.

Asked if there could be more defections, he said: “I think there are very many Tory voters who genuinely feel that the party that they may have voted for – many, many times in some cases – is no longer the Tory Party that they see.

“And I say to every Tory voter who feels that they want to be part of a national mission to change our country for the better that the project we’ve built here in this changed Labour Party is a project that I hope they would feel they could get behind. “

The defection comes after MP Dan Poulter’s decision to leave the Tories for Labour in April and the dismal local election results for the Conservatives last week.

Ms Elphicke was elected as Dover’s Conservative MP in 2019, taking over the seat which had been held by her disgraced then-husband Charlie, who was jailed for two years after being found guilty in 2020 of sexually assaulting two women.

She stood by him during his trial but she said their marriage ended with his conviction.

Government minister Huw Merriman said he is “absolutely staggered” over Ms Elphicke’s “shameless” defection to Labour.

He said: “I’m absolutely staggered – I’ve seen some sights in this place, but actually the lack of scruples on this one is a new bar that Natalie has created.”

He added: “She is just being opportunist, I’m afraid to say, and I’m just disappointed for politics that she’s done what she’s done today.”

A Conservative member of Dover District Council described the defection as a “kick in the guts”.

Councillor Stephen Manion, who represents Eastry Rural, said he was “sickened” by Natalie Elphicke’s decision to cross the floor.

Tory former minister Stephen Hammond said “one of the reasons why I’m so surprised is that she’s always been on the right of the Conservative Party”.

He said: “If there’s been someone who has done as much as anyone to drag my party away from the centre ground of British politics in the last five years, it’s been Natalie.

“When you defect you are disliked by your old party and distrusted by your new, and she’ll find that out fairly quickly.”