Labour look like losers after defection

SINCE emerging from behind the shadow of Jeremy Corbyn, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has made relatively few missteps in his bid to become the country’s next Prime Minister  yet the high-profile defection of former Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke looks increasingly like it could be.

- ANDY PHILIPS

There were audible gasps as the MP for Dover was unveiled as the newest member of Starmer’s party as Prime Minister’s Questions were about to begin last week.

Even the radio analysts could be heard to say ‘what?’ as Elphicke took her seat behind Starmer and the news broke of the highest-profile defection since Sol Campbell joined Arsenal from Tottenham Hotspur.

It was clearly a well-kept secret that was designed to wrong-foot the Prime Minister at exactly the time when Rishi Sunak was seeking to shore up his own support following the results of council and mayoral elections, which many viewed as a disaster for the Tories. And yet, in the days since, it is

Labour and not the Conservatives who seem to have been on the back foot in defending the move, and many of Elphicke’s views have been revisited in light of her apparent Damascene conversion.