Lee Anderson has issued a scathing response to Natalie Elphicke's decision to defect from the Tories to Labour.
Reform UK's only MP accused the Labour Party of "scraping the bottom of the political barrel" following the MP for Dover's decision to cross the floor.
Anderson, who defected from the Tories earlier this year, claimed Labour "must be desperate" for accepting Elphicke into the party, claiming Reform UK "would not accept this".
He told GB News: "The Labour Party must be desperate by scraping the bottom of the political barrel. Natalie masqueraded as a centre right Conservative MP whilst trying to climb the greasy pole.
Lee Anderson has issued a scathing response to Natalie Elphicke's decision to defect from the Tories to Labour
PA
"Reform UK would not accept this calibre of politician who quite clearly puts herself before country."
Elphicke crashed out of the Tory party today just minutes before PMQs, hitting out at the "broken promises of Rishi Sunak's tired and chaotic government".
In a brutal statement, she accused Sunak of failing to "keep our borders safe and secure", as well as "failing to build the homes we need".
Hitting out at the Tory party, she said: "The elected Prime Minister was ousted in a coup led by the unelected Rishi Sunak.
"Under Rishi Sunak, the Conservatives have become a byword for incompetence and division. The centre ground has been abandoned and key pledges of the 2019 manifesto have been ditched."
The latest defection means that the Government's majority has more than halved since the general election, dropping from 80 to 38 seats.
But the move has faced criticism from inside the Tory Party, as well as on the Labour benches.
A Conservative Party spokesperson said: "The people of Dover and Deal will be disappointed having felt the impact of illegal immigration.
"They did have an MP who sat with the party fighting to tackle this issue head on, now they have had an MP in a party that has worked to block our plans to tackle illegal immigration 139 times.
"We wish Natalie well as she now has to support Labour's amnesty for illegal immigrants and one that directly opposes her own views - it was only last year that she penned an article titled 'Don't trust Labour on immigration they really want open borders'."
Brendan Clarke-Smith mocked Elphicke for what appeared to be changing views, sharing a 2020 tweet from Elphicke, accusing Labour of offering a “coalition of chaos” that would “take our country backwards on Brexit”. He joked: “I agree with Natalie”.
Tory chairman Richard Holden also shared a tweet from the Dover MP accusing Labour of wanting to “grab more in taxes from the pockets of millions of hardworking British people”.
Meanwhile, one Labour frontbencher told the Guardian: "There’s a lot of people sat opposite me I’d welcome with open arms. I can’t say Natalie would have been one of those."
Another MP said they broke into tears when they heard about the move.
