Rayner assures MPS Elphicke will have no role in Labour policies
ANGELA RAYNER privately assured Labour MPS that Natalie Elphicke would have no “formal role” in the party as she distanced herself from the Tory defector, The Telegraph can reveal.
Hours after Mrs Elphicke crossed the aisle to join Labour, Ms Rayner, the party’s deputy leader, made clear that the Dover MP would have no formal position advising on housing policy, an area Ms Rayner oversees in her role as the shadow communities secretary.
The message appeared to contradict indications from senior Labour insiders that Mrs Elphicke would be helping to set the party’s approach to such policies.
Ms Rayner’s comments were delivered to a dozen Labour MPS at an internal backbench parliamentary committee meeting at 2pm on Wednesday. A parliamentary source familiar with the meeting said: “Angela acknowledged her [Mrs Elphicke’s] expertise in housing finance and her support for Labour’s housing policy. But the key point was that she clarified Natalie will have no formal role beyond being just a backbencher.”
In Mrs Elphicke’s resignation statement, she said: “I’m honoured to have been asked to work with Keir and the team to help deliver the homes we need.”
The news comes amid a growing backlash from Labour Left-wingers and prominent women in the party to the defection of Mrs Elphicke, who had been on the Right of the Tory party. Yesterday, following criticism from her new party colleagues, Mrs Elphicke apologised for comments she made supporting her ex-husband after he was convicted of sexual assault.
In 2020, Charlie Elphicke, Mrs Elphicke’s former husband and her predecessor as Dover MP, was convicted of sexually assaulting two women and sentenced to two years in prison.
Although she ended the marriage after his conviction, Mrs Elphicke said he had been “attractive, and attracted to women” and “an easy target for dirty politics and false allegations”.
Jess Phillips, a Labour MP, had called on Mrs Elphicke to “account for her actions”.
Mrs Elphicke said: “[I] do condemn his behaviour towards other women and towards me. It was right that he was prosecuted, and I’m sorry for the comments that I made about his victims.”