Second UK lawmaker defects to Labour in new blow for PM

AFP | New Delhi     

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Britain’s ruling Conservatives yesterday suffered their second defection to the main opposition Labour party in as many weeks, piling pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Natalie Elphicke crossed the floor in the House of Commons just moments before Sunak’s weekly grilling by lawmakers, adding to his woes after heavy losses for the Tories in English local elections last week.

Elphicke is MP for Dover, on the south coast of England, which is heavily affected by the small boat crossings from northern Europe which Sunak has vowed to stop.

But she criticised the Tories’ “dramatic” lurch from the centre to the right since she was elected in Boris Johnson’s landslide election win in 2019, and cited concerns over “housing and the safety and security of our borders” as prompting her move.

MP Dan Poulter -- a qualified medical doctor -- announced last month that he had defected to Labour, saying only they could be trusted to reform the staterun National Health Service (NHS).

The latest defection comes after Sunak’s Tories lost 1,500 councillors in the local elections and as they languish in the polls before a general election expected later this year.