One sinner that repenteth

Natalie Elphicke's astonishing defection from the Tories to Labour just before Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons yesterday has given rise to a great deal of comment, much of it hostile.

Former Labour leader, Neil (now Lord) Kinnock, agreed that his party is a "a very broad church" but added "churches have walls and there are limits." Former Labour Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, speaking on LBC Radio, went further, saying "I'm a great believer in the powers of conversion, but I think even this one would have strained the generosity of spirit of John the Baptist, quite honestly".

It is certainly true that Ms Elphicke's apparent Damascene conversion to Labour has been met with much scepticism and some anger. In fact the only Labour politician who seems to have warmly welcomed her into the party is its current Leader, Sir Keir Starmer, and this might yet be added to his record of gaffe's and missteps as a stick with which to beat him.

Because, let's face it, Ms Elphicke's character is a difficult one to warm to. Her political stance as the Tory MP for Dover and Deal (which she took over from her disgraced, now ex-hubby, Charlie) has been very much to the right of the Conservative spectrum and her past pronouncements have raised eyebrows and ire in equal measure. One might have thought a more natural defection for her would have been to the Reform party. 

But, of course, crossing the floor to Labour was motivated by other than purely ideological reasons; it was quite clearly staged in such a way as to inflict maximum embarrassment on Tory Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, just as he was about to stand at the despatch box to take his first PMQs after his bruising local election defeats. Coup de grâce rapidly morphed into coup de théâtre.

For it was, first and foremost, a piece of Parliamentary theatre, for which Sir Keir will get very few curtain calls, and rather a lot of heckling. In fact, it was interesting to see how firmly he gripped Ms Elphicke by the shoulder in their awkwardly-staged parlour chat, as if he feared she might bolt. The set was dressed with the now-obligatory Union Flag, which matched Ms Elphicke's patriotic neckerchief, and the pair engaged in stilted conversation for the sake of the assembled media. Awks didn't cut it.

And it is likely to get more awkward yet as anger spreads, for example at Diane Abbot still not having been welcomed back into the Labour fold while Poulter, Elphicke, and who knows who else, get the red carpet treatment. That's the problem with broad churches - the ever-present danger of schism.

I'm frankly surprised that Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbot, John McDonnell et al haven't already formed a new leftwing party. The same applies to the Conservative Party, of course. The rise of Reform, the successor to UKIP and the Brexit Party, must surely pressurise One Nation Tories to, as they would say, "reclaim the soul" of the party of Benjamin Disraeli, after the general election.

British Parliamentary democracy (particularly if it sticks to the antiquated first-past-the-post electoral system - shared in Europe only with Belarus apparently) might be better served by more parties - left, right and centre - rather than, as at present, trying to shoehorn a wide range of opinions into increasingly fissiparous single party structures. 

The presence of more smaller parties in the House of Commons might just oblige coalition agreements in order to form governments, which in turn could lead to a stronger politics and better legislation.

I'm sure we'd all say "amen" to that.


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