MP Natalie Elphicke Defects To Labour From Tories

Natalie Elphicke has become the latest MP to leave the Conservatives and defect to the Labour party.

The MP for Dover announced on Wednesday that she had left the Tories because the party had "become a byword for incompetence and division", while Keir Starmer's Labour party has "changed out of all recognition" since the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, who stood down in 2020.

She becomes the second MP to leave the Tories for Labour in the space of a few weeks after Dan Poulter, the MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, did so late last month. His primary reason for defecting was what he described as the Tory failure on the NHS. Christian Wakeford, the MP for Bury South, crossed the floor from the Conservatives to Labour in 2022.

She will not contest the next general election, however. Labour has already selected Mike Tapp as its candidate in the Kent seat.

In a statement, Elphicke said: "When I was elected in 2019, the Conservative Party occupied the centre ground of British politics.

"The party was about building the future and making the most of the opportunities that lay ahead for our country.  

"Since then, many things have changed. The elected Prime Minister [Boris Johnson] was ousted in a coup led by the unelected Rishi Sunak. Under Rishi Sunak, the Conservatives have become a byword for incompetence and division. The centre ground has been abandoned and key pledges of the 2019 manifesto have been ditched."

Elphicke, who was elected to the House of Commons in 2019, attacked her former party's record on stopping illegal immigration, saying the government was "failing to keep our borders safe and secure".

She also criticised what she described as the government's "failure to build the homes we need", as well as homelessness