What does Natalie Elphicke’s defection to Labour mean for the Tories?

As Rishi Sunak loses his second MP in two weeks to the opposition benches, Sean O’Grady looks at the history of high-profile defections – and at what this one says about the state of the Conservative Party

Labour leader Keir Starmer with former Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke in his parliamentary office (PA)

Everyone loves a defection, but Natalie Elphicke’s switch from the Conservatives to Labour has raised more than the usual quota of questions. Unlike, say, the defection of Lee Anderson from the Conservatives to Reform, which was entirely predictable, Elphicke’s move has left friend and ex-friend alike somewhat mystified.

Though no one’s idea of an intellectual, Elphicke has always presented as an unusually partisan Tory and, as MP for Dover and Deal, an enthusiastic supporter of “stop the boats” and government immigration policy, with only the caveat that the latter wasn’t hard enough. She was also a devout Brexiteer, though in this case despite, rather than because of, the fact that she represented the major Channel port of Dover in parliament.

Generally she was seen as being on the centre-right of the party, and supported Penny Mordaunt and then Liz Truss for the leadership in 2022. No one, in other words, saw this one coming, and Keir Starmer made the most of the “prize” at Prime Minister’s Questions, with most of those in the chamber unaware of her switch until they spied her on the opposition benches.