Wes Streeting has said he has spoken to more Conservative MPs about defecting to the Labour Party, just days after Natalie Elphicke, the MP for Dover, crossed the floor.
Defending the party’s decision to admit Elphicke, the shadow health secretary said Elphicke had switched sides “with a purpose” and “not out of personal ambition”.
Speaking to The Independent about recent Conservative defectors, including Dan Poulter who crossed the floor last month, he said: “I think in Dan’s case as a doctor in the NHS who has come to unequivocal conclusion only Labour can be trusted to sort the NHS out, Natalie Elphicke who is with her community seeing the consequences of what happens when immigration goes poorly managed.”
He added: “I think they’re very powerful message-carriers but they have defected with a purpose, not our of personal ambition, and I think people should take that message really seriously.”
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Streeting also claimed he has spoken to more Conservative MPs considering a move because of the “division and incompetence” of the government.
It comes amid criticism of Labour’s decision to admit Elphicke to the party, citing her political views and her previous support of her ex-husband after he was found guilty of sexual assaulting two women.
The Dover MP apologised on Thursday for claiming after Charlie Elphicke’s 2020 conviction that he was “attractive, and attracted to women”..
She said: “The period of 2017 – 2020 was an incredibly stressful and difficult one for me as I learned more about the person I thought I knew. I know it was far harder for the women who had to relive their experiences and give evidence against him.”
Elphicke defected to the Labour Party on Wednesday, moments before prime minister’s questions began at noon.
Elphicke, having previously criticised Labour’s plan to tackle illegal migration, cited the government’s “failure” to keep the UK’s borders secure in her defection statement.
She accused the government of “failing to keep our borders safe and secure”, adding: “Lives are being lost in the English Channel while small boat arrivals are once again at record levels.
“It’s clear they have failed to keep our borders secure and cannot be trusted”.
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