Last week saw the surprise defection of the MP for Dover. Natalie Elphicke had been elected as the MP back in 2019, as the Conservative candidate. After spending the last four years relentlessly attacking Labour and Sir Kier Starmer, she decided she needed to be a member of the Labour Party and crossed the floor. Known as a far-right winger, former Labour shadow chancellor (under Jeremy Corbyn) John McDonnell described her conversion as worthy of that of John the Baptist. Others suggested it as bizarre as if Jeremy Corbyn had come to the Conservatives.
It was certainly a surprise, if not the defection itself, that she headed to the left. But it is rumoured that Reform leader Richard Tice would not have taken her had she followed her political instincts. And, of course, this follows the defection a couple of weeks ago of Dr Dan Poulter, who similarly switched from Conservative to Labour. I served on a select committee with him, but we never saw him as his parliamentary duties came behind his second job as an NHS doctor.
Defections are not new. During the chaos of the Brexit years, back in 2018, a fair number of both Labour and Conservative MPs went to a new, anti-Brexit party, before some joined the Liberal Democrats. We’ve heard nothing of any of them since then, all losing their elections in 2019.
This does, of course, raise a very legitimate question of honesty with voters. The constitutional situation is that an MP that is elected holds that mandate for the full term of the parliament, irrespective of what party they represent. But we all know that when people go to the ballot box, they are almost certainly voting for the character and drive of the leader of the party the candidate is standing for. We do not have a presidential system, but it feels like it. People vote for the parties. And given that voters hand over responsibility for being represented in parliament to an individual, it is fair to expect that individual to behave as they promised for the duration of that parliament, as set out in their manifesto.
There are calls for by-elections. Constitutionally, that is not an option. But I do think we need to think again about this. After all, if someone opens a McDonalds franchise, we don’t expect them to start selling buckets of chicken wings. People are right to feel aggrieved if their MP promises to be one thing, and then they deliver the opposite.