The day before Elphicke physically “crossed the floor” to sit on the opposition benches during Prime Minister’s Questions, she went door-to-door in her Dover district, distributing leaflets disparaging Sir Keir Starmer.
He leaned back from the front bench on Wednesday to shake her hand in front of shocked lawmakers on both sides, and they later posed for happy photos.
Elphicke is the second Tory MP to defect to Labour in a two-week period. She and Dr. Dan Poulter have both said that they will abstain from politics at the general election and that they will not run for office again in their previous districts.
Labour maintains that on an impending honors list, neither of them has been granted a seat in the House of Lords.
Another recent Conservative defector who moved to the right is Lee Anderson, who is officially an independent but has declared his intention to run for Reform UK in his Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, constituency.
