Readers respond to the news of the staunch rightwing Tory MP defecting to the Labour party
It is clearly moving season for MPs. First Dan Poulter, a former Tory health minister, defected to Labour at the end of April because of the government’s lamentable failings on the NHS. Fair enough.
Then there was the breathtaking defection to Labour of Natalie Elphicke, one of the most rightwing Tory MPs who has made a career of high-volume criticism of Labour policies, some of which would have meant a lifetime ban had the criticism come from a serving Labour MP. Elphicke was welcomed in by Keir Starmer (Report, 8 May). On the same day, the Labour whip was restored to Kate Osamor after what was described as “a full investigation” for claiming, on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day in January, that what is happening in Gaza should be remembered as genocide.
