Five times Natalie Elphicke criticised Starmer’s Labour

Another one bites the dust. The second Tory to defect to Labour in as many weeks is none other than Natalie Elphicke, MP for Dover. In a shock announcement just before Prime Minister’s Questions today, Labour declared that one of the Conservatives’ most hawkish MPs on immigration had defected to the Starmer army. Elphicke released a statement at noon, claiming that ‘under Rishi Sunak, the Conservatives have become a byword for incompetence and division’ and that ‘the centre ground has been abandoned and key pledges of the 2019 manifesto have been ditched’. Not really what Sunak wanted after last weekend’s dire local election results.

‘The modern Labour Party looks to the future,’ Elphicke continued, listing the Tory government’s failures on small boats, housing and homelessness. ‘Britain needs a government that will build a future of hope, optimism, opportunity and fairness,’ she concluded. All very grand – but Mr S seems to remember it wasn’t so long ago that the Dover MP herself was not particularly hopeful or optimistic about a party ran by a leader she dubbed ‘Sir Softie’.