Foxes at the door – the Tories' identity crisis politicshome.com/thehouse/artic…

“Had she gone to Reform or the BNP, we would have kind of understood it”

Tory MP commenting on Natalie Elphicke's defection on Alain Tolhurst's PoliticsHome podcast 👇politicshome.com/news/article/n…

🚨New PoliticsHome podcast🚨

🗳️Local wipeout - picking over last week’s disastrous election results for the Conservatives with:

🔵 Tory ex-minister Mark Garnier
🔴Christabel Cooper from Labour Together
🎓 Tim Bale from Queen Mary University of London

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there’s state intervention and then there’s this

AFTV here with its finger on the pulse as always

Tory MP Mark Garnier on Elphicke’s defection:

“Had she gone to Reform or the BNP we would have kind of understood it”

Podcast host Alain Tolhurst with the write up

politicshome.com/news/article/n…

My friend in London has just returned from voting today and tells me the turnout looked to be extremely low, with the polling station itself full of confused primary school children. Make of that what you will.

🪖 New: Procurement fraud has sent costs soaring in the MoD

It has accounted for *90 per cent* of detected fraud value in the department since 2020

Procurement fraud has cost the taxpayer more than £600 million over the last four years

🌹Labour’s Shadow Minister for Defence…

a burst of pace like this isn't to be scoffed at

Aside from being really rude this speaks to an unhealthy trend in politics of trashing the expertise of people you disagree with. John Curtice is the ultimate professional who has done more to bolster public understanding of elections & ensure transparency of polling than anyone

65 Conservative MPs - 72 if you include those who started this parliament as Tories - have announced they are standing down at the next election

Zoë Crowther diligently continues to track

politicshome.com/news/article/c…

A third of the Tory MPs that have ever defected to Labour have done so in the last fortnight.

Gospel

Labour reactions:
- “We’ve stooped very low” - shadow minister
- “It was a huge shock… I couldn’t stop swearing” - whip
- “No one is happy... Let’s see if she can stick to Labour lines” - backbench MP

Read Adam Payne below for No 10 reaction 👇

Bewilderment reigns in Westminster

I'm told that when figures in No10 were told Elphicke was switching, they assumed it was to Reform

politicshome.com/news/article/n…

Labour's Dover candidate Mike Tapp responds to Natalie Elphicke's defection:

'No-one is happier than me when someone is persuaded to come over to the Labour cause. I look forward to her supporting my election to represent Dover and Deal in the next Parliament.'

She's basically just a human shield for any attacks on immigration during the election campaign, a one line answer that Starmer can drop in to diffuse any criticism/scepticism.

Beyond delighted to learn that The House magazine has been shortlisted, for the first time, for the Paul Foot Award alongside some absolutely stellar pieces of journalism. Justine Smith's brilliant CAMHS investigation can be read here: longreads.politicshome.com/revealed-the-p…

But all the public will take from the defection is - another Tory has left the party, reinforcing perceptions of govt weakness/lack of control over events and maybe that her top line reason for doing so was failure on small boats.