Natalie Elphicke’s dramatic defection to Labour had already caused some controversy this week, with many in Labour feeling she should not have been welcome given her history on the right of the Tory party. Now there could be more trouble for Keir Starmer after the Sunday Times reported that Elphicke may have lobbied Justice Secretary Robert Buckland over her husband’s forthcoming trial on sexual assault charges in 2020. Speaking to Labour frontbencher Jonathan Ashworth on the BBC, Laura Kuenssberg asked if Elphicke should be investigated. Ashworth told Kuenssberg he ‘wasn’t there’ at the meeting in 2020, but said that Elphicke insisted the allegations were ‘nonsense’. He also asked why the justice secretary had never mentioned the incident before. Kuenssberg pointed out that Labour would probably be ‘shouting from the rooftops’ for an investigation if Elphicke was still a Tory MP, and wondered whether Labour had made an error of judgment.
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