James Kirkup James Kirkup

Labour MPs need to grow up

Natalie Elphicke (Photo: Getty)

Westminster is full of clever people who spend a lot of time stupidly making simple things complicated. The story of Nathalie Elphicke’s defection to Labour is a case in point.

This is a simple story, or should be. Someone who used to tell voters to vote Conservative is now telling voters to vote Labour. It’s more proof that the Tories are finished and Labour is the party that represents the biggest share of the electorate. End of story.

Half the PLP seems to have spent Wednesday afternoon messaging the lobby to say how much it offends their sensibilities to share oxygen with someone they disagree with

Yet the undisciplined and self-indulgent reactions from many parts of the Labour party risk telling a very different story: that not everyone is welcome in Labour – and if you think the wrong things, we don’t want you or your vote.

Those Labour reactions are splashed across the papers today and may yet filter through to the wider electorate.

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