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More Tory MPs are considering defecting to Labour because of “division and incompetence” in Rishi Sunak’s government, a Labour frontbencher has claimed.
But Wes Streeting insisted his party would not take just any Tory MP, as unrest grew among Labour ranks over its acceptance of Natalie Elphicke, long considered to be on the right wing of the Conservatives.
He said: “I’ve been speaking to other Conservative MPs in Parliament, who are wrestling with their future.”
Meanwhile, Keir Starmer is facing calls to let MP Diane Abbott back into Labour.
Ms Elphicke, who sent shockwaves through Westminster by defecting on Wednesday, has apologised for defending her ex-husband after he was found guilty of sexual assault.
Charlie Elphicke, her predecessor as MP for Dover, was convicted in 2020 of sexually assaulting two women and jailed for two years.
She ended the marriage but had said her husband was “attractive, and attracted to women” and “an easy target for dirty politics and false allegations”.
One shadow minister told Politico her comments were “abhorrent” and a Labour councillor in Dover said the remarks “minimised what was predatory behaviour and sexual abuse”.
More Conservative MPs want to join Labour, says Wes Streeting
Accepting Elphicke remarkable, says minister
A minister says Sir Keir Starmer’s acceptance of Natalie Elphicke as a Labour MP is remarkable when the party “has no room” for Jeremy Corbyn or Diane Abbott.
Security minister Tom Tugendhat told Sky News’s Politics Hub: “He’s got a party that has Zarah Sultana on one side and Natalie Elphicke on the other but has no room for the guy he wanted to put into No 10 only a few years ago, Jeremy Corbyn, or Diane Abbott, who’s been campaigning for the Labour movement for what is it, 20 or 30 years? It’s a remarkable thing.”
He added: “And I like Keir, he’s a decent guy, but I have no idea what he stands for.”
Starmer to promise new anti-terror measures to tackle small boat gangs
Labour will use new counter-terrorism powers to tackle people-smuggling gangs bringing migrants across the Channel in small boats, Sir Keir Starmer is set to announce on Friday.
In a speech on the Kent coast, the party leader will set out his plans to tackle the small boats crisis if it wins the general election.
Sir Keir is expected to say Labour will “replace gimmicks with graft”, scrapping the government’s Rwanda scheme and using some of the money saved to fund a new “elite Border Security Command” led by a former police, military or intelligence chief.
Attacking the government’s approach as “rank incompetence”, he is expected to accuse the Conservatives of operating a “Travelodge amnesty” by housing migrants in hotels rather than processing their claims.
Among the measures to be proposed by Sir Keir are new border-control stop-and-searches, building on powers created in 2000 by the Terrorism Act, along with new financial investigation powers and search and seizure warrants targeting organised immigration crime.
The new Border Security Command would bring together agencies including the National Crime Agency, Immigration Enforcement and MI5, while Labour will also pledge to hire hundreds of new specialist investigators to work across the UK and Europe to tackle people smuggling.
Sir Keir will also stress his experience as the former head of the Crown Prosecution Service and pledge to make Britain “hostile territory” for people-smugglers.
He will say: “A business that pits nation against nation, thrives in the grey areas of our rules, the cracks between our institutions, where, they believe, they can exploit some of the most vulnerable people in the world with impunity.
“It’s a vile trade that preys on the desperation and hope it finds in its victims.”
Pay top civil servants more, says think tank
Civil servants should be paid more to attract the best talent to Whitehall, and the outdated process of appointments is too easily “gamed”, according to research by a leading think tank.
Headache for Starmer as pro-Gaza professor challenges top Labour MP
Sunak must allow visit from UN food inspector, charities say
Exclusive: The government is accused of ‘avoiding scrutiny’ by denying a visit of a UN special rapporteur:
Starmer faces demands to reinstate Diane Abbott
In case you missed it: Moment Tory MP Natalie Elphicke joins Labour minutes before PMQs
The Dover MP crossed the floor in the Commons as she hit out at the “broken promises of Rishi Sunak’s tired and chaotic Government”.
She said: “I have carefully considered this decision. The change has been dramatic and cannot be ignored.”
At PMQs, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer asked Mr Sunak “what is the point of this failed Government staggering on” when “the Tory MP for Dover on the front line of small boats crisis says the Prime Minister cannot be trusted with our borders and joins Labour?”
Rishi Sunak must allow visit from UN food inspector due to increasing levels of UK poverty, 85 charities write
Mr Sunak’s government has told the UN special rapporteur on the right to food that he cannot visit the UK until next year. Professor Michael Fakhri, who uses his role to study hunger and food insecurity in countries around the world, asked to make a formal visit to the UK more than 20 months ago.
Tory MP provokes fury as he announces in Commons he has banned asylum seekers cases from his surgery
Labour MPs erupted in fury as a rightwing Tory told the Commons that he has instructed his constituency staff to refuse any cases brought to him by asylum seekers.
Calls of “resign!” could be heard across the chamber as Dudley North MP Marco Longhi got up to speak.
His intervention was another shot across the bows for Rishi Sunak with the right of his party making their views clear on his failure to stop the small boats with asylum seekers on them.
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Source: independent.co.uk
