Defections
In January 2022, Christian Wakeford - the MP for Bury South - was the first Conservative MP to defect to Labour in 15 years. Quentin Davies had been the last, in 2007. Wakeford defected without resigning and standing in a by-election, which would have been the principled thing to do, especially since a General Election was so far away. This was followed by Dan Poulter (Central Suffolk and North Ipswich) in April 2024. Poulter at least announced he would stand down for the next election, so he was not as shameless as Wakeford. However, surely he will get something out of it - if not a peerage then a job on a quango. It doesn't do any harm to ingratiate yourself with the likely incoming government, and it's a way of being remembered by the media after the electoral carnage has occurred. It's akin to the nobleman who famously hovered with his army in a corner of Bosworth Field, waiting to see who was winning so he could march in on the victorious side.
So far, so wet. These were liberal Remainer Tories who fitted in quite well with neo-Blairite Labour. Moving from Tory to Labour is still a ridiculous move to make, much more than say Tory to Reform or Labour to Green, but nobody was very surprised. They were surprised, however, when Dover MP Natalie Elphicke defected in May. Here was a Brexiteer, ERG member and an illegal immigration hawk. The move contradicted everything Elphicke had been saying until that point, and everything Labour had been saying. It appeared to be naked opportunism. Like Poulter, Elphicke would stand down at the next election, but this time Labour admitted she had been promised a job on a housing taskforce. If she becomes a Baroness at some point, they will claim it is because of her work in this role, not 'services to Keir Starmer'.
The reaction was intense. Tories emphasised how 'right wing' Elphicke was to draw attention to the mismatch. The left of Labour - and the left in exile - were appalled someone with her credentials could be recruited at a time even their former leader had been denied the whip. The message was clearly 'socialists out, Tories in'. Even some figures who are usually quite Starmer-adjacent were perturbed. The Starm-troopers of course were making out what a 'blinder' their hero had played, and declaring that everyone complaining did not want Labour to win the election. Appealing to conservatives was the only way to get power, and all the trots (those not already purged by Starmer) should just leave. Other Labour supporters claimed it was just a short term win over Sunak, embarrassing him and weakening his grip further. To them it was forgivable if excessive.
Elphicke's politics were just the start of the issue. She had replaced her husband, Charlie Elphicke, as the MP after he was charged with sexual assault of two women in 2019. When he was convicted in 2020, in an exclusive with The Sun she claimed Charlie was innocent and had been targeted by malicious accusations: "Charlie is charming, wealthy, charismatic and successful — attractive, and attracted to, women. All things that in today’s climate made him an easy target for dirty politics and false allegations...the criminal allegations against him were complete nonsense". She stated he had not received a fair trial: "Following an unfair trial during the Covid-19 pandemic, I believe that Charlie was convicted in a terrible miscarriage of justice". She also believed the sentence to be unfair: "It seemed clear to me that community service should be ordered". She said that the court could have been "on a mission in sentencing, as I believed they had been during the trial". This implies he was singled out for harsh treatment because he was a former MP.
Elphicke claims at the time of the trial she had resolved to leave her husband (he had also been having a consensual affair), but still considered him innocent and falsely accused. Between conviction and sentencing, the judge had apparently ordered him to live at the family home and she allowed this. Charlie Elphicke appealed his conviction in 2021 and was unsuccessful. At this point, she officially left him - which looks rather like opportunism in itself - and they divorced. When the whole saga came out again following her defection to Labour, Elphicke said her husband had in fact been guilty, and she was sorry for doubting the women accusing him. Interesting - it seems she changes her mind quite a bit on things. Surely this wasn't damage limitation under orders from Labour HQ...
Worse than claiming her husband's innocence and dismissing the women involved, Elphicke and four other Conservative MPs had written to two senior judges raising concerns about the presiding judge in the case. With the judge, Justice Whipple, copied in, they aimed to prevent Whipple admitting character references during the sentencing phase of the trial. They claimed this was against precedent, and presumably were concerned the references would be negative. For this intervention, the MPs were found by the Parliamentary Committee on Standards to have breached their code of conduct. Amusingly, the shadow leader of the Commons, Thangam Debbonaire, declared the Tories "think it is one rule for them and another for everyone else". What does she think now Elphicke is on her team?
It is also alleged Elphicke tried to lobby the then-Justice Secretary, Robert Buckland, to move her husband's trial date (July 29th 2020). She did this, apparently, because the trial was set to be one of the first after the lifting of Covid restrictions. This would have meant more publicity, as journalists would be in attendance. Buckland himself supports this claim and says he told Elphicke it would not be appropriate for him to intervene. He did not report the incident at the time, likely because she was a Tory MP and it would have looked bad (it still does).
So now Labour's ethics were under scrutiny, not just their messaging. If their ethics were not at fault, then certainly their vetting skills were. When you consider Labour's pious lines on sexual crimes against women; on how we are supposed to 'believe the victim'; it seems most peculiar to accept someone with Elphicke's record. This, more than the Dover MP's politics, angered a lot of Labour supporters. Jess Phillips said Elphicke had questions to answer. Anneliese Dodds, not for the first time, tied herself in knots defending their new recruit.
Elphicke also sent a private message to a friend mocking Marcus Rashford for missing his penalty in the Euro 2020 final, suggesting he had been spending too much time on political activism. This doesn't bother me, but it was tantamount to progressive blasphemy at the time and has added further controversy.
Labour figures that criticised the defection included Rosie Duffield, who said: "I don’t believe for a second that she has suddenly transformed into a Labour MP". She shouldn't find it so hard to believe from a party who thinks a man can suddenly transform into a woman. Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell criticised the move: "I'm a great believer in the powers of conversion, but I think even this one would have strained the generosity of spirit of John the Baptist". Zara Sultana was unconvinced also: "unless she has had the biggest Damascene conversion ever, I just don't buy it". These two, of course, are among those trouble-maker trots who 'don't want Labour to win an election' and are on Starmer's purge list.
Apparently most members of the shadow cabinet were not told about the defection, probably to avoid leaks. Unless Starmer was simply trying to preserve the surprise, this suggests he thought it might be problematic and could lead to negative leaking, which could have forced him into an embarrassing climb-down. This way his cabinet would be forced to back him or risk him losing face. By rushing it through without consulting his full team, however, he may have made the wrong choice. His front-bench did rally around the flag, and perhaps they are all amoral enough to buy into the move; but it might have sown seeds of distrust among some of them. It certainly backfired somewhat where the backbenchers and the Labour membership were concerned, because it showed disregard for them. It showed a reckless, arrogant streak at the top of the party, causing bad feeling that could well fester as time goes by.
You might ask of me: do you not welcome Labour going in a more socially conservative direction? Well I would do, if it was genuine. But quite clearly it is not. It is an attempt to get elected. Their track record on the Channel Crisis issue in particular is dreadful. There is no reason, aside perhaps of the record of the Blair and Brown governments, to believe they would effectively tackle the problem. Even if they do, there are a whole range of areas in which they will be - and have been - 'progressive'. They are not conservatives, even if they understand what conservatives want to hear. Many would level the same at the Conservative Party, of course...
If you are on the left and believe that Starmer is really a conservative, the recruitment of Elphicke will have proven your theory. I can understand your disgust and why you would want to leave Labour or deny them your vote. He conned your side by pretending he was left-wing, and he's conning our side by pretending he's right wing. It's what conmen do.
Maybe, like Blair, he's neither left, right, centrist, liberal or anything. Maybe he is just a receptacle for power. Again, perhaps this applies just as much to the Conservative Party. The two parties take it in shifts, to fill a void and prevent any radical change; to stop the proles from getting out of hand and to keep economic stability, weighted to those in charge. Perhaps that is why it is so easy for some to switch between the two.
Elphicke is clearly not a genuine person either, if she is prepared to go against everything she's previously said purely to keep some semblance of a career. As a Brexit supporter, how can she trust Labour in the slightest? Maybe she never believed in the process in the first place. Her conservativism, frankly, seems to have been a lie - no more real than Starmer's tokenistic efforts. She too is an receptacle of power - a temporary placeholder for when Red Team take her seat. And her gesture will be rewarded by influence.
Not only MPs are switching sides. The son of Iceland CEO and its executive chairman, Richard Walker, had long tried to get a Conservative seat. When turned down (his application was deferred), he apparently wrote in desperation to Rishi Sunak begging to intervene, saying that getting the seat was his “most fervent wish”. Guido Fawkes published a copy of the alleged correspondence. Just four months later, he moved over to Labour and was being paraded around like Starmer’s new pet. Doubtless a reward awaits, perhaps a rear end on a green bench. Former Speaker John Bercow also boarded the Labour train in 2021, taking to their conference stage that year. He was later suspended because of bullying accusations.
Rumours abound that more defections will come, although it's possible Starmer will be less zealous after the Elphicke controversy. It is equally possible he won't learn at all and will push on with 'his changed Labour Party' - a mercenary vehicle for getting into office. Will the new recruit be a wet again, or someone more hard line? Some conservatives are even praying it will Caroline Nokes, or another unwanted liberal. Parodies of Labour's 'welcome our new MP' graphic featured everyone from Nigel Farage to Alan B'stard, Fred West and Satan himself. Jokes aside, it really does seem to be the direction Starmer has chosen, one devoid of principle and one devoid of shame. As long as it ends in him being greeted by fake members of the public waving plastic Union flags outside Number 10, he doesn't care less.