Natalie Elphicke’s defection: a brutal operation to demolish Sunak’s crumbling power

I asked a top Labour source just before Prime Minister’s Questions if Keir Starmer was going to ask about the £46bn cost of Rishi Sunak’s ambition to abolish national insurance contributions. “No. Not this week,” I was told.

A few minutes later I found out why, when an MP took her place behind Starmer, who turned round to shake her hand. She didn’t look like any Labour MP I recognised. She looked like – well, you know the rest. She was Natalie Elphicke, the MP for Dover, who has a reputation as a maverick, right-wing Conservative.

Starmer had his best outing as a result. Sunak kept his poise, but could not conceal the humiliation of losing another MP to the other side. He knew that two defections in two weeks makes his government look like a regime coming to a disorderly end.