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Natalie Elphike, who defected from the Conservative Party to Labor last week, described the claims she made to the Attorney General over her ex-husband’s sex crimes trial as “nonsense”.
She reportedly approached the then attorney general, Sir Robert Buckland, in July 2020 to intervene in her husband’s case. Sunday Times.
She is said to have complained that the case against Charlie Elphicke was being heard at a high-profile Southwark court and urged Sir Robert to move the case to a smaller court.
“She was told in no uncertain terms that it was completely inappropriate to speak to the judge about the trial,” Sir Robert said in a statement.
In response to this claim, a spokesperson for Elfike said:
“It is certain that after Mr Elphike was jailed, he continued to be supported by many Conservative MPs who had known him for many years, some of whom visited him and lobbied independently on his behalf. It included the congressman who went, but it had nothing to do with Natalie.”
Elphike’s predecessor, Dover councilor Charlie Elphike, was convicted in 2020 of sexually assaulting two women and sentenced to two years in prison. The couple separated soon after his conviction.
Shortly after defecting to the Labor Party, Ms Elphike apologized after being criticized by colleagues in her new party for speaking out in support of her ex-husband, who was convicted of sexual assault.
She said this in an interview. Sun In 2020, she said he was an “easy target” because he was “attractive” and “attracted to women.”
In a statement, she said she was aware that joining the Labor Party would “put a spotlight on the prosecution of my ex-husband” and wanted to “tackle some of the commentary around this case head-on”.
“The period from 2017 to 2020 was an incredibly stressful and difficult time for me. I ended up learning more about people I thought I knew. , I know it was much more difficult for the women who had to give evidence against him.
“I have and continue to condemn his behavior towards other women and me. He was right to be prosecuted and I am sorry for the comments I made about his victims. think.
“It is vital that women have confidence in the criminal justice system, but our prosecution and conviction rates are too low as a country.”
Ms Elphike faced criticism from across her former party for her decision to defect, with Foreign Secretary and former prime minister Sir David Cameron calling her actions “naked opportunism”.
“I’m not a fan of Exile. I took over from Whitney’s Exile, and I think it’s always going to leave a legacy of upheaval and betrayal and all that,” he said. sky news.
“I thought this was more just blatant opportunism by the Labor Party than anything else. This is a completely right-wing Tory MP who has never supported any of Labour’s policies, people or approaches. He was suddenly welcomed into the Labor Party.
“What became clear was that there was a moment when I looked at the Labor Party and thought, if we don’t stand for something, we’re going to end up in something like this.”
Several Labor Party insiders, including former leader Lord Kinnock, have also questioned the move to allow Mr Elphike to join the party.
he said daily telegraph Labor said: “We need to be somewhat cautious about who we allow into our party.”
“Mr Elphike needs to decide whether he remains true to Labour’s platform and principles,” he added.
John McDonnell, a Labor MP and former shadow chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn, described the defection as a “damaging act for the Conservative Party”, but added: “Natalie Elphike has expressed in the past that “Because of his views, it has an impact on the Labor Party.” ”.
He told LBC: “People are reacting to this and saying, okay, this is a useful political stunt, maybe in the short term it is, but in the long term it says something about Labor’s values at the moment. I think there is.”