Labour in talks with more Tory MPs about defecting, says Streeting

Wes Streeting’s remarks came after Natalie Elphicke, the MP for Dover, defected to the Conservatives on Wednesday – Avalon

The Labour Party is in talks with other Tory MPs who are considering defecting, Wes Streeting has claimed.

Mr Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said he had spoken to a number of Conservatives who were “wrestling with their future” and considering joining Sir Keir Starmer’s party.

His remarks came after Natalie Elphicke, the MP for Dover, defected to the Conservatives on Wednesday, two weeks after Dan Poulter, the MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, had done the same.

“I’ve been speaking to other Conservative MPs in Parliament who are wrestling with their future in the Conservative Party,” Mr Streeting told The Independent.

“I’ve no doubt that wasn’t an easy decision for her [Ms Elphicke] to come over. Whether other people make the leap I think remains to be seen. I think there are plenty of Conservatives who are thinking about their future in the Conservative Party and definitely take Labour seriously.

“If I had a pound for every Conservative MP, who has said: ‘I think it’s a mess and up to you guys to sort this out, we need a period of opposition,’ I would be pretty well off.”

Mr Streeting, one of Labour’s most senior frontbenchers, did not name any of the MPs he said were considering crossing the floor.

But amid a growing backlash against Ms Elphicke’s defection from Labour MPs and party activists in her Dover constituency, he insisted that she had switched parties “with a purpose” and “not out of personal ambition”.

“I think in Dan’s case [it is] as a doctor in the NHS who has come to the unequivocal conclusion only Labour can be trusted to sort the NHS out,” he said. “Natalie Elphicke is, with her community, seeing the consequences of what happens when immigration goes poorly managed.

“I think they’re very powerful message-carriers – but they have defected with a purpose, not out of personal ambition, and I think people should take that message really seriously.”

Labour has faced criticism for admitting Ms Elphicke because of comments she made supporting her ex-husband after he was convicted of sexual assault in 2020.

She apologised for the remarks on Thursday, saying: “It was right that he was prosecuted, and I’m sorry for the comments that I made about his victims.”

Charlie Elphicke, her former husband and predecessor as MP for Dover, was convicted of sexually assaulting two women and sentenced to two years in prison.

Although she ended the marriage after his conviction, Ms Elphicke supported his unsuccessful appeal, saying he had been “attractive, and attracted to women” and “an easy target for dirty politics and false allegations”.

Mr Streeting said Labour would not accept any Tory MP, indicating that some would not be welcome even if they did want to defect. “Put it this way, I’m not expecting Liz Truss to make a Damascene conversion – but if she did, I’d rather have the lettuce,” he added.

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