The Conservative Party’s weak electoral results in the UK local elections confirmed the worst expectations about its formation and sparked a state of tension among its members. An increasing number of representatives fear that the expected defeat in the upcoming general elections will lead to them being stripped of their seats, an option that has opened the door to defections. Both Labor and the right-wing populist Reform Party of Britain have become tempting options for Tory MPs dissatisfied with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s leadership.
The latest to confirm that she is leaving the party to join the Labor Party is Natalie Elphicke, a member of the House of Commons since 2019. She was elected for the constituency of Dover, in southeast England, where most migrants cross the border. The English Channel is irregular – the new Labor MP has been harsh on Sunak’s failure to stem the flow of arrivals. “Lives are being lost in the English Channel, and herder arrivals are once again at record levels. It is clear that [el Govern] “She has failed to maintain the security of our borders and cannot be trusted,” he said in a statement.
Elphick’s move joins that of MP Dan Poulter, who also joined Labor less than two weeks ago. The two cases have alarmed the leadership of the Conservative Party, which fears that more MPs will leave after the defeat in the local elections last weekend, in which nearly half of the councilors who defended their position and the “city council” lost the West Midlands region – which includes the city of Birmingham, The second largest city in the country in terms of population. Sunak is clinging to the possibility that Labor will not win enough of a majority in parliament to maintain optimism among its members, but fewer and fewer believe there is still hope.
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