The internal fallout over Natalie Elphicke’s defection continues, with the Labour leader of Dover District Council, Kevin Mills, saying he had reacted with “horror” when he heard she was crossing the floor. Mills said on BBC Radio 5 Live that she should have stood down as an MP instead:
“Well I had to check yesterday wasn’t April 1st when I was told by officers…. [I was in] complete shock…I have to say to some degree horror… Extremely concerned, I would say.”
Not exactly a ringing endorsement from the leader of Elphicke’s local authority. Meanwhile, David Cameron gave a grave warning to the former Tory MP: “In life, if you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.”
Keir Starmer’s team say that it’s not their job to mollycoddle outraged Labour MPs – that comes as Elphicke apologises for her husband’s behaviour “towards other women and towards me”. After Charlie Elphicke was convicted of sexual assault in 2020 Natalie’s line was that he was “attractive” and “attracted to women” , which made him an “easy target”…
Starmer spoke to Nick Robinson for the Today Programme on Polanski’s criticism of the Golders Green police officers:
“I want everybody just to imagine what it might be like. You’re trying to arrest someone who has already attacked two people and has no regard for life. We know that tasers were fired. I know from my own experience with the police, that there are only two shots in a taser, and once you’ve shot them, there’s nothing left. There’s a guy on the ground, he’s got a rucksack on. And I don’t know what was going through the mind of those officers, but if I was there, I’d be thinking, he’s going to detonate something. He’s going to blow me up and everybody around here. In those circumstances, I think you can quite see why what could have gone through their mind is, we need to do whatever we can to disable this guy…
Now, when I then see Zack Polanski come out and retweet or support a criticism of that, I think it’s disgraceful… He’s not fit to lead any political party.”