Marina Purkiss It’s just top trolling. One defection to trash the Tory record on the NHS, another to trash their record on immigration and housing. Both are standing down at the next election so both will be campaigning for our Labour candidates. It’s making the Tories squirm.

Reactions on here to the Elphicke defection are very online. Just listened to the news bulletin on Classic FM (that’s how I roll): Conservative MP defects, criticises PM on small boats, then snippet of PM defending position. Many voters will digest at that level.

Only the Labour Party under Keir Starmer, with Yvette Cooper, will secure the borders.

It's one of the reasons so many former #Conservatives are coming to #Labour .

#Dover #Deal #Securetheborders

I think this may make it better too. Not really offered anything other than the opportunity of punishing Sunak further.

One thing Poulter and Elphicke defecting - for very little benefit given both are standing down and neither have been offered a peerage - shows is just how astonishingly bad Sunak + team are at the basic of politics.

He doesn’t realise he’s being humiliated. His lack of self-knowledge is a product of his general lack of curiosity.

This is absolutely how the vast majority of voters will see this. Which is why it's been welcomed by LOTO more enthusiastically than by many activists.

Elphicke is expected to advise Labour on housing policy but on a unpaid basis

Yep. Today is a Twitter is not the real world day.

Brethren, the drive for purity must continue until all impurities have been purged and only true believers are left. Then the true believers must be purged of imposters until real believers are left. But amongst the real believers will be spies, and we will root these out ...

The Labour Party’s statement:

And this is our Labour candidate for Dover BTW.

Give him a follow - he will be fab 🙌🏾🙌🏾🌹🌹

Again it seems people are more interested in purity that taking down the Tories. Every MP that defects means the next GE is a day closer.

If one Tory MP defected each week - the current rate of attrition - the Conservatives would lose their majority by the 2nd October (in 21 weeks time).

Her long held views on the green belt seem in tune with Labour’s planning big bang, perhaps rarer in Home Counties conservatives

Labour has clarified that this guy is still the Labour candidate for Dover and Natalie Elphicke is stepping down at the election

Natalie Elphick is standing down at the next GE so this defection is hilarious with no repercussions.

.Natalie Elphicke MP: 'We need to move on from the broken promises of Rishi Sunak’s tired and chaotic Govt. Britain needs a Govt that will build a future of hope, optimism, opportunity and fairness.'
NB She's stepping down at elxn. Mike Tapp is still Labour's Dover candidate

Elphicke has a long, interesting history on housing policy, the chief executive of the Housing & Finance Institute, and ran a Govt report on getting councils to back house building

insidehousing.co.uk/insight/the-co…

Labour appears to be more welcoming to political refugees than Natalie Elphicke herself has been. Lucky she didn’t cross the floor in a small boat.