Elphicke defects to Labour over small boats and housing crisis
Rishi Sunak has been dealt a fresh blow with Tory MP Natalie Elphicke’s defection 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”.
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.
“Meanwhile under Labour, they are clear that it is important to have defence and they want to make sure that they have good national security. So 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. The MP could take on an unpaid role working on housing policy with Labour, aides suggested.
Sir Keir dodged a question about whether Labour was in talks with other Conservative MPS. Asked if there could be more defections, he said: “I say to every Tory voter who feels that they want to be part of a national mission to change our country for the better that the project we’ve built here is a project I hope they could get behind.”
The defection comes after MP Dan Poulter’s decision to leave the Tories for Labour in April and the dismal local election results for the Conservatives last week.
He’s not stopping the boats and he’s letting the country down