Could Keir Starmer’s Decision To Welcome Natalie Elphicke From The Tories Backfire?

Keir Starmer was feeling very pleased with himself after prime minister’s questions today.

The Labour leader was cock-a-hoop at pulling off a show-stealing coup when Tory MP Natalie Elphicke dramatically crossed the floor just two minutes before the weekly Commons showpiece.

Conservative MPs were left stunned by the moment of parliamentary theatre, exchanging quizzical looks and muttering darkly as it became clear what had happened.

Elphicke, the MP for Dover, is the third Tory to defect to Labour in this parliament – and the second to do so inside a fortnight.

A delighted Starmer said: “She’s got a strong track record on issues such as housing, she’s on the frontline when it comes to the crisis of small boats.

“I think she speaks for very many Tory voters in saying that the Tory Party has changed, it’s left the centre ground. But equally the Labour Party has changed  and we are very clearly the party of the national interest.”

But it is Elphicke’s previous right-wing stance on issues as diverse as immigration and Marcus Rashford’s school meal campaign which raised eyebrows, and could cause trouble for Starmer further down the line.

As Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker said on X: “I have been searching in vain for a Conservative MP who thinks themself to the right of Natalie Elphicke. One just quipped: ‘I didn’t realise there was any room to her right’.”

Others on social media pointed out that Labour now appears to be happy to count a member of the Brexiteer European Research Group among their MPs, but not Diane Abbott, still suspended by the party over allegations of anti-semitism.

It is perhaps no coincidence that The Guardian is reporting that Kate Osamor, another member of the Labour left, is to get the party whip back after an investigation into comments she made about Gaza on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day.

Momentum, no fans of Starmer it must be said, condemned the decision to accept Elphicke to the parliamentary Labour party.

“She voted against Labour proposals to outlaw fire and rehire, while supporting a wide array of destructive and damaging Tory legislation,” the group said.

“She should have no place in a Labour Party committed to progressive values and working class people.”

Of course, Team Starmer will believe that the message Elphicke’s defiction sends out – that Labour is under new management and now a home for those who have voted Tory in the past – will outweigh any negative headlines.

But there is also a risk that an already apathetic electorate may come to the conclusion that there is no real difference between Labour and the Conservatives, and decide to act accordingly by sitting on their hands come polling day.