Britain’s ruling Conservatives on Wednesday suffered their second defection to the main opposition Labour party in as many weeks, piling pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Natalie Elphicke crossed the floor in the House of Commons just moments before Sunak’s weekly grilling by lawmakers, adding to his woes after heavy losses for the Tories in English local elections last week. Elphicke is MP for Dover, on the south coast of England, which is heavily affected by the small boat crossings from northern Europe which Sunak has vowed to stop.
But she criticised the Tories’ “dramatic” lurch from the centre to the right since she was elected in Boris Johnson’s landslide election win in 2019, and cited concerns over “housing and the safety and security of our borders” as prompting her move. Dan Poulter — a qualified medical doctor — announced last month that he had defected to Labour, saying only they could be trusted to reform the state-run National Health Service (NHS).
The latest defection comes after Sunak’s Tories lost 1,500 councillors in the local elections and as they languish in the polls before a general election expected later this year. As of late April, 63 Conservative MPs have said they do not intend to run in the next general election, according to a tally by the Institute for Government. Elphicke’s defection raised eyebrows given that last year she wrote in a newspaper column that Labour had “no plan of their own to tackle illegal immigration” and that she was a right-winger.
Labour said it had already chosen a candidate for her constituency and she would not be standing for them at the election. Party leader Keir Starmer asked Sunak in parliament “what is the point of this failed government staggering on” when “the Tory MP for Dover on the front line of small boats crisis says the prime minister cannot be trusted with our borders and joins Labour?” Elphicke was elected in 2019, taking over the seat previously held by her then-husband Charlie, who was jailed for two years for sexual assault.
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