Hard right Tory Dover MP Natalie Elphicke’s defection to Labour is odd, to say the least, but it is predictable that Starmer has welcomed her into the ranks of the Parliamentary Labour Party. Her stay there will be short, since she says she will stand down anyway at the next election. She would probably have lost her seat, since Dover has been Labour before. In the past, under the Blair/Brown years, I recollect (I may be wrong) every defector was rewarded with a seat in the Lords. The Tories too have dangled the ermine in front of ‘catches.’ John Mann and Ian Austin are two from the Labour side who have accepted, so to speak the Tory shilling. (More than a shilling actually—more like £350 a day.) In some cases, it may be that crossing the floor has only come after long, agonising conscience grappling dilemmas. Actually, I can’t think of any. And these days I can’t believe that the Changed Labour Party would stoop to such sordid deals, just for the sake of a brief media flash in the pan. The trouble is, this latest acquisition merely confirms Starmer’s trajectory. Heaven knows, Lee ‘30p’ (which party am I in this week?) Anderson may once again choose to join our ranks. He would be welcomed with open arms. Maybe even win a peerage.
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