[Politics] Natalie Elphic defects to labour

[timbha]

Is it that you're advocating the expense and the commitment of a by-election? Or that the constituents of Dover are deprived of a representative?

No I’m not. Nor am I advocating a Tory MP voted in by Tory constituents now batting for the other side. She was elected on the Tory manifesto.

 

[Gabbiano]

She's standing down at the election. Labour already have a candidate and it won't be her.

Rings up Starmer and says I've had it with this PM and the party, I'm standing down at the next election and would like to pull a stunt at PMQs by walking across to Labour. My natural home is actually the extreme wing of The Reform party but I'm spitting blood. Come on mate I know it will upset John Mcdonnell but I'll buy him a pint.

And Starmer says no ?

Absolutely he should. If I were Starmer I wouldn't touch her with a bargepole.

Undermines his own party's moral positions and alienates his existing base, just for a cheap stunt to kick a government that's already done for. They should be treating Elphicke just the same as the rest of the Tories.

Ultimately it will amount to little, Labour will still win in a landslide, but I'd rather not have the sour taste in the mouth.

 

[clapham_gull]

I do not hail from the Tories.

It’s just mad to accept her if Labour want to stand for anything. She is very, very right wing.

All Labour need to stand for at the moment is getting elected and getting this lot out.

She is very right wing, but not so on housing and is apparently a bit of an expert.

She has advocated rent controls and other Government intervention in areas of depravity. The sort of policy that makes Suella sprinkle more iron fillings on her cornflakes.

I'd imagine that sealed the deal and she probably be helping with them with their housing policy before the next election.

 

[clapham_gull]

..and alienates his existing base.

Alienating some of your existing base wins elections, especially as both major parties have both lurched to their extremes over the last few years.

I doubt most Labour voters are even aware who she is or what she stands for.

In any case, it was all done before she found God, sorry Starmer

Judge them on what they do in power, not the decisions they feel they need to make to get there.

Anyway it was worth it just for this ->

 

[macbeth]

Sorry to hear that.

A lifetime of political opposition and disappointment awaits you.

well acquainted with that already. give me PR asap. lucky enough to live in brighton pavilion constituency, so i can meaningfully vote green at the general elections. don’t even like them that much, i think their housing policy is very weak, and they like shooting themselves in the foot, but they are generally the closest party to my morals, and MPs only have a very minor impact on local policy in any case. i still hope the tories lose the next election, which they will

 

[keaton]

Before those in donkey jackets with a Billy Bragg LP under their arm start wetting themselves, she isn't standing for parliament next election.

It's a stunt to wind up the Tories (quite a weird one all the same) but it's worked. Very difficult for them to complain she was always a bit of a pinko.

It is not as if she's a centre right Tory moving over.

But is embarrassing the Tories going to win them more votes?

The Tories have been embarrassed and shamed to an incredible extent in the last 3/4 years. If it's a vote winner then I think that's sorted, however this is embarrassing for Labour as well as alienating more of you actual followers (when the centre left vote is always potentially split) and giving people who maintain both parties are as bad as each other more ammunition

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

I think Labour have accepted this because of one thing only and that is her putting the boot into the Tories on immigration and 'stop the boats'. Its one of the few issues where the Tories think they have the upper hand with the electorate, so what better than one of their own, and the MP for Dover no less, to tell everyone that actually the Conservative policy doesn't work.

Her as a person is bloody awful, but we are getting on to the 'let's consider the policies' stage of the election cycle. We've now had one Tory MP who works in the NHS saying their health policy is a shambles, and now the Tory MP for Dover saying their immigration policy is a shambles.

Almost feels staged, wonder who we'll get next.


(I still wouldn't put it past Elphicke playing the long game and rocking up as the Reform candidate come election time with a 'plague on both your houses' campaign)

 

[Moshe Gariani]

Completely consistent with Keir Starmer's intelligent and strategic approach.

Will help increase Labour majority in next government.

 

[The Clamp]

El "thick"...

Labour should have said, thanks but no thanks

Dry mouth and constant blinking.

Two very strong indicators her adrenaline is up. And her adrenaline is up because she knows she’s trying to get away with talking absolute bobbins.

 

[dazzer6666]

…..if she had any integrity she’d resign and re-stand in a by-election……but she’s a politician

 

[Weststander]

If it show's Starmer is too Tory this is likely to increase Labour votes.

Remember that Elphick is standing down, and her defection is simply a 'f*** you, Sunak' gesture, not an attempt by the woman to carve out a new career as a Labour MP.

In fact it could be argued as about an honest and honorouble gesture as one in her position could possibly make. The chances were she would have been re-elected as a Tory.

She’s after a peerage, to be awarded in Labour’s first term. According to a few journalists.

 

[beorhthelm]

She’s after a peerage, to be awarded in Labour’s first term. According to a few journalists.

might be her motivation, it doesn't explain Stamer's. seems it's gone down badly in his shadow cabinet and across the party, not just the left fringes. a peerage would make that worse, though post election might not matter much, would not look great.

 

[Is it PotG?]

Completely consistent with Keir Starmer's intelligent and strategic approach.

The guaranteed narrative of the next 10 years.

Still, you can't please everyone.

John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor, told LBC that he was shocked by Sir Keir’s decision.

“It certainly is a stunt that damages the Tories, there’s no doubt about that. But it also has implications for the Labour Party as well, because of the views that Natalie Elphicke has expressed in the past, some of which I don’t think the party should be associated with,” he said.

James Schneider, Jeremy Corbyn’s former director of communications, said: “It shows there is no principle on the back of the membership card that Keir Starmer won’t trample over in his rush to be indistinguishable from the Tories.

“On all the major issues, Britain is now a one-party state; but with our traditional British eccentricity we have two of them.”

 

[Weststander]

might be her motivation, it doesn't explain Stamer's. seems it's gone down badly in his shadow cabinet and across the party, not just the left fringes. a peerage would make that worse, though post election might not matter much, would not look great.

It shouldn’t cost them any/many seats at the GE, because who tangibly from the non two main parties will now beat Labour in marginals?

I wonder, on saying that, if the SNP can beat Labour with the stick that they’re welcomed a very right winger?

 

[Machiavelli]

No I’m not. Nor am I advocating a Tory MP voted in by Tory constituents now batting for the other side. She was elected on the Tory manifesto.

She was also elected as a constituency MP, and crossing the floor is one of the features of our constituency electoral system.
I agree with you that lots about this is distasteful, including the crossing of the floor but, within the parameters of our representative system, I can't see what outcome you're getting behind.
If the issue is with the overall representative system, then there's an important debate to be had.

 

[Titanic]

Labour chair Anneliese Dodds said the Dover MP was a "good, natural fit" for her party.

Natalie Elphicke: Labour insists ex-Tory MP is 'good fit' for party

Some Labour MPs are unhappy about Tory defector Natalie Elphicke's views and past comments.

www.bbc.co.uk

I don't think I understand our politics anymore... it's all far too intelligent and strategic for me.

 

[Machiavelli]

I think Labour have accepted this because of one thing only and that is her putting the boot into the Tories on immigration and 'stop the boats'. Its one of the few issues where the Tories think they have the upper hand with the electorate, so what better than one of their own, and the MP for Dover no less, to tell everyone that actually the Conservative policy doesn't work.

Her as a person is bloody awful, but we are getting on to the 'let's consider the policies' stage of the election cycle. We've now had one Tory MP who works in the NHS saying their health policy is a shambles, and now the Tory MP for Dover saying their immigration policy is a shambles.

Almost feels staged, wonder who we'll get next.


(I still wouldn't put it past Elphicke playing the long game and rocking up as the Reform candidate come election time with a 'plague on both your houses' campaign)

Agree with this. Also worth adding that between them Elphicke and Poulter undermine two of Sunak's five pledges. Of the other three, it looks as though only one will be met and the control that the government have had over that is, at best, limited given that the role of controlling inflation is in the remit of the BoE.

 

[WATFORD zero]

Labour chair Anneliese Dodds said the Dover MP was a "good, natural fit" for her party.

Natalie Elphicke: Labour insists ex-Tory MP is 'good fit' for party

Some Labour MPs are unhappy about Tory defector Natalie Elphicke's views and past comments.

www.bbc.co.uk

I don't think I understand our politics anymore... it's all far too intelligent and strategic for me.

With MPs crossing the floor and standing down at the next election in ever increasing numbers, you must be in with a fair shout of standing next election

 

[Titanic]

With MPs crossing the floor and standing down at the next election in ever increasing numbers, you must be in with a fair shout of standing next election

Sorry, but that wretched hive of scum and villainy is not for me.

 

[Machiavelli]

Labour chair Anneliese Dodds said the Dover MP was a "good, natural fit" for her party.

Natalie Elphicke: Labour insists ex-Tory MP is 'good fit' for party

Some Labour MPs are unhappy about Tory defector Natalie Elphicke's views and past comments.

www.bbc.co.uk

I don't think I understand our politics anymore... it's all far too intelligent and strategic for me.

I'll try to give my PotV. Ever since Thatcher, our politics has largely been managerial, where the big political/economic questions have been deemed to be resolved. Within such managerial politics, minor differences are ramped up and casting a rival party in bad light is a primary way to elevate you over your opponent. And that's effectively what we've been subjected to over the past four decades.

It's patently apparent, however, that the big political/economic questions haven't been resolved and that this petty party politics that we endure is a sign of that -- although it's been occurring within a malign economic and social context since 2008 within which tends to ramp up the unpleasantness and search for scapegoats.

In short, remaining entrapped within the parameters of party politics -- and particularly the Labour-Tory rivalry -- is limiting to understanding, as is the obsession with centrism. Instead, focus on the bigger, longer picture.