Sunak hit by defection of Elphicke over small boats
RISHI Sunak has been dealt a fresh blow after Tory MP Natalie Elphicke defected to Labour, hitting out at his “tired and chaotic government”.
The MP for Dover said the Prime
Minister had failed to deliver on his promise to stop the boats and also accused him of deserting the political centre ground.
She crossed the floor in the Commons
just moments before Prime Minister’s Questions and sat behind Sir Keir Starmer, who hailed her defection as another indication of how he had changed the Labour
Party. “From small boats to biosecurity, Rishi Sunak’s government is failing to keep our borders safe and secure,” she said.
“Lives are being lost in the English Channel while small boat arrivals are once again at record levels.
“It’s clear they have failed to keep our borders secure and cannot be trusted.”
Ms Elphicke said the “key deciding factors” in her defection were housing issues and “the safety and security of our borders”.
Speaking to reporters in Sir Keir’s parliamentary office after Prime Minister’s Questions, she said: “In 2019, the Conservatives stood on a manifesto that was very much centre ground, but under Rishi Sunak they’ve abandoned the centre ground and broken many election promises.
“Meanwhile, under Keir Starmer, Labour have changed. And I think that change is going to bring a much better future for our country, and that’s why I was so keen to join the Labour Party and play my part in bringing that important future forward.”
A year ago, Ms Elphicke used a newspaper column to claim “not only have Labour got no plan of their own to tackle illegal immigration, they simply do not want to” and said Sir Keir “has pledged to rip up our world-leading partnership to remove illegal migrants to Rwanda”.
Asked about her previous criticism of Labour over immigration policy, she said Mr Sunak “was the man who said he would stop the boats” but so far this year there had been “record numbers of small boats arrivals”.
“So, he’s not stopping the boats and he’s letting the country down.
“I think we should have confidence that Labour are the party who will tackle this issue of the small boats crossings.”
Ms Elphicke is standing down at the general election and denied that she had been offered a peerage by Labour.