(CN) — In another blow to the U.K’s governing party following disastrous local election results this past week, Member of Parliament Natalie Elphicke has defected from the Conservatives to join the opposition party.
Elphicke, a relatively new Conservative MP elected at the 2019 general election, said her old party had “broken many election promises,” were “tired and chaotic,” and that the Labour Party offers the country “a much better future.” Elphicke represents Dover in South East England, a constituency being targeted by Labour in the upcoming general election, which is expected later this year.
Announcing the defection in Parliament, Labour Party leader Keir Starmer was in a triumphant and gloating mood — even describing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as “a dodgy salesman desperate to sell a dud."
"If the prime minister thinks the voters are wrong, that his own MPs who have joined the Labour party are wrong, and that anyone believes any of the nonsense that he spouts, why does he not put it to the test and call a general election?” Starmer said.
In an interview announcing her defection, Elphicke highlighted the issue of border security as among her reasons for leaving the Conservatives. Sunak has made the border a key election issue, pledging to “stop the boats” — perilous crossings of the English Channel by refugees and migrants, often in dinghies. As the MP for Dover — England’s nearest point to France — Elphicke is regarded as on the front line of the issue, making her abandonment of the party especially crushing for Sunak.
MP defections are usually very rare in British politics, particularly between the two main parties. However, this is the second defection to Labour the Conservatives have faced in as many weeks. At the end of last month, MP Dan Poulter also crossed the floor to the Labour Party. A doctor in his private life, Poulter said he was finding it increasingly difficult to look his National Health Service colleagues in the eye given its current state under Conservative governance.
“The difficulty for the Conservative Party is that the party I was elected into valued public services,” Poulter said. “It had a compassionate view about supporting the more disadvantaged in society. I think the Conservative Party today is a very different place.”
The defections are an embarrassment to Sunak, who is finding it hard to maintain any authority over his party as it seemingly heads to inevitable defeat. Privately, many Conservative MPs are reported to be discussing not simply defeat at the upcoming general election, but a potential extinction-level event akin to the Conservative wipe-out in the 1992 Canadian federal election.
Elphicke’s defection is notably different from Poluter’s, however. While Poulter was an established and increasingly rare figure in the “one-nation” faction of the party, which leans to the center politically, Elphicke was considered a figure on the hard-right of the Conservatives — in parliamentary terms, about as far away from the center-left Labour Party as one can get.
Her previous positions are starkly at odds with her new party, from opposing regulations on oil and gas projects to advocacy of trade union restrictions and nationality stripping. Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Conservative minister Steve Baker said: “I have been searching in vain for a Conservative MP who thinks themself to the right of Natalie Elphicke.”
She also comes with considerable baggage — her defense of her ex-husband and predecessor as MP, Charlie Elphicke, who was convicted in 2020 of sexually assaulting several woman. At the time, she was dismissive of the conviction, stating that “Charlie is charming, wealthy, charismatic and successful — attractive, and attracted to, women” and adding that “men sometimes stray — wives always wish they wouldn’t.”
The acceptance of such a contentious figure into the opposition ranks has not gone down well within the Labour Party. Neighboring MP Rosie Duffield expressed skepticism at the move, stating “I don’t believe for a second that she has suddenly transformed into a Labour MP.”
Former opposition finance minister John McDonnell took a similar view. “I’m a great believer in the power of conversion but even this one would strain the generosity of spirit of John the Baptist quite honestly," he said.
Pressure piled onto Elphicke by her new party forced her to issue an apology for her comments about her ex-husband on Thursday. “It was right that he was prosecuted and I’m sorry for the comments that I made about his victims," she said.
For some in the party, Elphicke’s coronation as a Labour MP is the latest in a stark rightward drift the leadership have taken the party on over the past five years — a potential source of parliamentary divisions in a future Labour administration.
For the leadership of Britain’s likely next party of government, however, the willingness to welcome Elphicke is simply representative of a ruthless commitment to victory that seems set to deliver Labour an unprecedented landslide.
The latest YouGov poll released Wednesday put Labour 30 percentage points ahead of the Conservatives. The 18% support recorded for the governing party is the lowest figure it's received nationwide since regular polling began in 1978.
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
