Tory turncoat Natalie Elphicke fails to indicate for first Labour backbench assembly | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Tory turncoat Natalie Elphicke failed to indicate up for the primary assembly of the Parliamentary Labour Party on Monday night time.

Dozens of Sir Keir Starmer’s backbenchers gathered for a briefing on the social gathering’s newest transport insurance policies.

But Mrs Elphicke, who shocked Westminster by deserting the Tories, didn’t attend.

And Labour MPs claimed her defection – which has brought on widespread anger throughout the social gathering – was not even raised through the assembly, which lasted simply 23 minutes.

One even quipped to ready journalists: “You did not actually anticipate her to come back did you?”

Right-winger Natalie Elphicke’s shock decision to desert the party for Labour has left Conservative party enforcers looking for a “needle in a haystack” as they try to see off potential quitters.

Party whips carrying out their regular weekend phone call with every backbencher at the weekend were checking for signs of upset.

They are said to be looking closely at those who have friendships across the floor, after Ms Elphicke’s switch was masterminded by Labour’s John Healey.

Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer dismissed suggestions he would defect to Labour, telling Times Radio: “There are plenty of painful and doubtless deadly issues I’d fairly do than defect to the Labour Party”.

The Prime Minister mentioned the defection “shows less about her and it’s more about Keir Starmer”.

“It shows him to be completely and utterly unprincipled. This is someone who went from embracing Jeremy Corbyn to embracing Natalie Elphicke,” he mentioned.

“It simply tells you that you would be able to’t belief what the man says. If you are attempting to be all the pieces to everybody, basically you do not stand for something.”

Dover MP Ms Elphicke quit the Tories in a protest over housing policy and the failure to curb small boat crossings of the English Channel.

But Mr Sunak told reporters following a speech in London: “As Natalie Elphicke herself mentioned, within the not-too-distant previous, Labour are an ‘open borders, pro-immigration social gathering that does not wish to cease the boats’. Her phrases, not mine.”

Meanwhile, unease within Labour and the unions over Ms Elphicke’s defection intensified.

A Labour MP said there should be an independent investigation into allegations that Ms Elphicke in 2020 asked then-justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland to intervene in her then-husband Charlie Elphicke’s case.

Labour has said Ms Elphicke “completely rejects that characterisation of the assembly”.

Former shadow minister for tackling domestic violence Jess Phillips told LBC: “I feel questions must be answered now.

“I don’t know how one would prove if two people are saying two different things, it’s not my wheelhouse, it’s not my pay grade, there are questions to be answered, there are apologies to be made and there is work to do and I maintain that position.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak mentioned the defection “shows less about her and it’s more about Keir Starmer”.

“It shows him to be completely and utterly unprincipled. This is someone who went from embracing Jeremy Corbyn to embracing Natalie Elphicke,” he mentioned.

“It simply tells you that you would be able to’t belief what the man says. If you are attempting to be all the pieces to everybody, basically you do not stand for something.”

Dover MP Ms Elphicke quit the Tories in a protest over housing policy and the failure to curb small boat crossings of the English Channel.

But Mr Sunak told reporters following a speech in London: “As Natalie Elphicke herself mentioned, within the not-too-distant previous, Labour are an ‘open borders, pro-immigration social gathering that does not wish to cease the boats’. Her phrases, not mine.”