A Kent MP continues to face backlash after defecting to the Labour Party – with new and old allies criticising the move and party leader Sir Keir Starmer.

Natalie Elphicke, who represents Dover and Deal, crossed the floor in the House of Commons yesterday after slamming Rishi Sunak’s “tired and chaotic government” and accusing the Prime Minister of failing to deliver on his promise to “stop the boats”.

But her move is yet to convince some of her new colleagues, with the neighbouring Folkestone and Hythe Constituency Labour Party’s (FHCLP) executive calling for her application to join the party to be rejected.

Concerns have been raised about comments she made after her then-husband was convicted of sexual assault, as well as her political alignment with the left-wing party – with one anonymous MP claiming to be left in tears by her defection.

One Labour MP told the PA news agency: “I think it’s utterly disgraceful.

“She’s totally right-wing and supported her husband when he sexually assaulted women.

“There are Labour MPs still suspended and we’re welcoming MPs who have voted to push people into poverty. I despair.”

Ms Elphicke’s former husband and predecessor as MP for Dover, Charlie Elphicke, was convicted in 2020 of sexually assaulting two women and sentenced to two years in prison, serving half of that sentence.

Although she ended the 26-year marriage after his conviction, Ms Elphicke supported his unsuccessful appeal and described the verdict as “a terrible miscarriage of justice”, saying her former partner had been “attractive, and attracted to women” and “an easy target for dirty politics and false allegations”.

Ms Elphicke has today apologised for these comments, saying: "My decision to join the Labour Party is not one I have taken lightly but one I made because I am convinced that this country needs a new government led by Keir Starmer to fix the problems we see from housing to small boats.

"I always knew that this decision would put a spotlight on the prosecution of my ex-husband and I want to address some of the commentary around this head on.

"The period of 2017 - 2020 was an incredibly stressful and difficult one for me as I learned more about the person I thought I knew. I know it was far harder for the women who had to relive their experiences and give evidence against him.

"I have previously, and do, condemn his behaviour towards other women and towards me. It was right that he was prosecuted and I'm sorry for the comments that I made about his victims.

"It is vital that women can have confidence in the criminal justice system and our rates of prosecution and conviction are far too low as a country.

"Keir Starmer's mission to halve male violence against women and girls is critical and I wanted to take the opportunity to express my explicit support for Labour colleagues working to realise it."

But her statement has failed to alleviate the concerns of her new colleagues in Folkestone and Hythe.

In a post on X this afternoon, the FHCLP executive said it was “shocked and appalled” that Ms Elphicke has been accepted as an MP within the Labour Party.

“We believe that she is a toxic and divisive figure who has no place within the Labour Party and that - while it may have been temporarily headline grabbing to accept her - tremendous damage has been done to the party’s reputation in doing so,” it said.

“We know many members of the CLP in Dover and Deal will feel bewildered by this move.

“We send our solidarity to them, and we hope they will apply to the National Executive Committee [of the Labour Party] to have Elphicke’s application to join the Labour Party rejected as they are entitled to do under the rule book.”

Both Ms Elphicke and Sir Roger Gale, the MP for North Thanet, were suspended from the Commons for one day after trying to influence a judge who was deciding whether to release character references they had written for Elphicke.

Reacting to Ms Elphicke’s defection, Sir Roger said: “Having given Mrs Elphicke considerable personal support at the time when she most needed it I think it is fair to say that her monumental demonstration of disloyalty to her former friends warrants mild disappointment!

“So far as I can see Mrs Elphicke has absolutely nothing in common with either the old or the ‘re-invented’ Labour Party.

“I would like to think that she will not be dishonourable enough to accept a peerage from Mr Starmer and it will be interesting to see if she has the courage to fight her Dover seat as a socialist.”

And Labour’s Jess Phillips, the former shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding, said Ms Elphicke should “account for her actions”.

She told ITV’s Peston: “I’m all for forgiveness but I do think that that needs some explaining.”

The branch of the GMB union that represents MPs’ staff said it had requested a meeting with Labour whips “regarding vetting of sitting MPs and candidates”, with branch chairwoman Jenny Symmons describing the decision as “really, really poor and disappointing”.

A year ago, Ms Elphicke used a newspaper column to claim “not only have Labour got no plan of their own to tackle illegal immigration, they simply do not want to” and said Sir Keir “has pledged to rip up our world-leading partnership to remove illegal migrants to Rwanda”.

When asked yesterday about her previous criticism of Labour over immigration policy, Ms Elphicke said Mr Sunak “was the man who said he would stop the boats” but so far this year there had been “record numbers of small boats arrivals”.

“So he’s not stopping the boats and he’s letting the country down,” she continued.

“Meanwhile under Labour, they are clear that it is important to have defence and they want to make sure that they have good national security. So I think we should have confidence that Labour are the party who will tackle this issue of the small boats crossings.”

Labour already has a parliamentary candidate for the constituency in Mike Tapp and reports suggest Ms Elphicke will not be standing at the next election. She says she has not been offered a peerage by Labour.

Political forecasting website Electoral Calculus gives the Conservatives just an 8% chance of winning the Dover and Deal seat.