Labour is under mounting pressure over Natalie Elphicke's defection to the party, with growing calls for an investigation into claims she lobbied a minister to interfere in her then-husband’s sex offences trial.
Former shadow minister for tackling domestic violence Jess Phillips said there are "questions to be answered", while Health minister Maria Caulfield said there should be an investigation.
Their comments came after allegations that Elphicke asked then-justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland to intervene in her then-husband Charlie Elphicke’s case in 2020.
Labour has said Elphicke “totally rejects that characterisation of the meeting”, while a spokersperson for the MP for Dover said the claims were "nonsense".
Labour is under mounting pressure over Natalie Elphicke's defection to the party, with growing calls for an investigation into claims she lobbied a minister to interfere in her then-husband’s sex offences trial
PA
But Phillips told LBC: “I think questions have to be answered now. I don’t know how one would prove if two people are saying two different things, it’s not my wheelhouse.
"It’s not my pay grade, there are questions to be answered, there are apologies to be made and there is work to do and I maintain that position.”
Meanwhile, Shadow education minister Catherine McKinnell told Sky News on Monday she was “baffled” as to why Sir Robert had “sat on” the allegations and said his reasons for doing so should be “looked into”.
Elphicke announced her defection from the Conservative Party yesterday just minutes before PMQs last week, with Starmer welcoming her to the party.
The MP for Dover, who was elected in 2019, took over from her husband who was jailed for two years in September 2020 for sexually assaulting two women.
After his conviction, Elphicke claimed the allegations were "false", saying he had been punished for being "charming, wealthy, charismatic and successful".
She was on the right of the Tory party, supporting Liz truss in the 2022 leadership contest and being a member of the pro-Brexit European Research Group.
Reacting to her defection, Labour MP Sarah Champion expressed concern over "some of the things Mrs Elphicke had said defending her ex-husband from the sexual abuse allegations", which she said "don't sit well with me at all".
A spokesperson for the Labour leader said: "All those issues have been dealt with previously both in Parliament and in public".
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Announcing her defection last week, Elphicke accused Sunak of failing to "keep our borders safe and secure", as well as "failing to build the homes we need".
The defection means that the Government's majority has more than halved since the general election, dropping from 80 to 38 seats.
