The Labour Party has confirmed that Natalie Elphicke will not be standing for her current seat at the next general election.

"We've already selected a Labour candidate in Dover and Deal, Mike Tapp", a party spokesman says.

Asked whether Elphicke could stand in another seat, he says "as a Labour Party member, it is open to her to apply for any selection that comes up".

A spokesman for Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says Natalie Elphicke could take up an unpaid role working on housing policy with the party.

"We have talked about her doing a role building on her experience in housing policy," the spokesman says.

He also denies that Elphicke was offered a peerage or job in return for her defection from the Conservatives.

Labour party chair Anneliese Dodds has been talking to BBC Radio 4 about why the Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke has just defected to Labour.

Illegal migration is one of the key factors. "She has seen people lose their lives in the channel," Dodds says.

"The government's Rwanda plan is a costly con and Labour has a serious plan," she says, adding that Labour would smash the criminal gangs and reduce the backlog.

Housing is another big issue for the newly-defected MP, Dodds says - especially the "dreadful experience of children in temporary accommodation" and the need for more action on building homes.

Downing Street says Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will not change course on his policies to tackle illegal migration.

Sunak's press secretary has brushed off questions on whether the PM is concerned about the second defection in recent weeks after Dan Poulter also defected to Labour in recent weeks.

The press secretary says she hopes Natalie Elphicke will explain why she changed her mind on Labour's policies after she was "very forthright" in attacking Sir Keir Starmer's "open-borders policy".

We've had reaction from the right - now here's some comments from left-wing campaign group Momentum, which is also unhappy about the defection.

In a post on X, external it says: "Natalie Elphicke has consistently demonised refugees and aid groups. She voted against Labour proposals to outlaw fire and rehire, while supporting a wide array of destructive and damaging Tory legislation.

"She should have no place in a Labour Party committed to progressive values and working-class people.

"Sadly, Keir Starmer is taking Labour away from its core values, aping a failed Tory Party instead of offering a real alternative to it."

Momentum are longstanding allies of former Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and have been critical of Sir Keir Starmer and his leadership.

We are getting more reaction now to Natalie Elphicke's defection. A Conservative member of Dover District Council says he is "sickened" by the Dover MP's decision to move to the Labour Party.

"I'm saddened," Councillor Stephen Mannion tells the PA news agency, "because we gave her a lot of support down here."

"A lot of the members of the association were out there week after week campaigning for her. It feels like a kick in the stomach really," he adds.

Image source, UK Parliament

Well, that was another fiery PMQs exchange. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Tory party suffered another defection to the opposition, less than a week after disappointing local election results for the incumbent government.

• Moments before MPs had the opportunity to ask Sunak their burning questions, Dover MP Natalie Elphicke defected from the Conservative party to Sir Keir Starmer's Labour party
• Pressed on local election results and Elphicke's move, Sunak was asked by Starmer what was the point of "this failed government staggering on"
• In response, Sunak joined Starmer in welcoming the new Labour MP for Blackpool and congratulated all new councillors, PCCs and mayors across the country
• Sunak paid tribute to former West Midlands mayor Andy Street, who had held the role for seven years and lost by just 1,508 votes to Labour's Richard Parker in last week's mayoral elections
• Asked if he was in a "hurry" to return to California after disappointing results in his own North Yorkshire constituency, Sunak said the people of North Yorkshire were interested in "straight talking common sense" and they wouldn't, in his view, get that from Starmer
• Looking at the Israel-Gaza war in the Middle East, SNP's Stephen Flynn asked Sunak if he'd halt arms sales to Israel. The prime minister said the government wasn't directly involved in these sales, adding that he was deeply concerned about the situation in the southern Gazan city of Rafah

And to follow that clip of Natalie Elphicke, here are the anticipated images, only hours after her defection to Labour...

...Sir Keir Starmer shaking hands with the former Conservative MP.

The images were taken in Starmer's parliamentary office in the House of Commons.

Image source, PA

Image source, PA Media

Labour leader Keir Starmer has been speaking to reporters with his newest MP Natalie Elphicke.

Starmer says Elphicke had a "strong track record on issues such as housing" and was "on the front line when it comes to the crisis of small boats".

Asked if more Conservatives MPs could defect, he sidesteps the question but says: "I think there are very many Tory voters who genuinely feel that the party that they may have voted for - many, many times in some cases - is no longer the Tory party that they see."

Elphicke says under Rishi Sunak the Conservatives abandoned the centre ground and broken election promises while Starmer was offering a "better future for our country".

Asked if she had been offered a peerage in the House of Lords by Labour, she says "No" adding: "What I have been asked to do is contribute in the area of housing."

Back now to the shock news we got just over an hour ago - Natalie Elphicke's shock defection to Labour.

Huw Merriman, a Conservative MP and transport minister, says he is "absolutely staggered" by the news.

Speaking to the BBC, he says: "I've seen some sights in this place but the lack of scruples on this one is a new bar that Natalie has created" - pointing to an article she had written about not trusting Labour on borders.

Asked if he ever sensed she could defect to Labour, Merriman says she was elected on the "back of Brexit, on the back of controlling small boats - that's something she stood for - and been vociferous against Labour for in terms of their refusal to back it and now she sits with them".

He adds that her decision to join Labour is an "opportunist" one that undermines trust in politicians.

Absolute child poverty has fallen since 2010, but is rising againpublished at 13:03 British Summer Time 8 May

13:03 BST 8 May

Earlier in PMQs, Rishi Sunak said the government had "overseen a significant fall... in child poverty since 2010".

Under one measure - called absolute poverty - there are fewer children in poverty compared with 2010.

This measure looks at how many families' incomes are below a fixed standard of living - roughly 40% below the average standard of living in 2011.

It stood at 28% in 2010, fell to 23% by 2021, but is on the rise and stands at 25% now.

There is another measure of poverty - relative poverty - which looks at how many families' incomes are 40% below today's average standard of living.

On this measure, 30% of children are living in poor households now, slightly up on the 29% back in 2010.

The Conservatives have responded to Natalie Elphicke's surprise defection.

A party spokesperson says her constituents in 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 an MP in a party that has worked to block our plans to tackle illegal immigration 139 times," the spokesperson adds.

“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.’”

Earlier, it was Labour's Keir Starmer accusing the Conservatives of an "amnesty" for asylum seekers, saying: "The whole country knows that removing less than 1% of asylum seekers isn't stopping the boats. It is granting an amnesty, a Tory amnesty."

On Labour's policy, its MP Ellie Reeves last week said: "We want to get people back to their own countries if their claims have failed which is why we would set up those return agreements and also recruit a thousand case workers."

Image source, PA

Elphicke is not the only one to make the switch from the Conservatives to Labour recently.

Dr Dan Poulter, a former minister, announced his defection at the end of last month, saying he could no longer look his NHS colleagues and patients in the eye and stay on as a Conservative.

Bury South MP Christian Wakeford left the Conservatives for Labour in 2022, while former Conservative Lee Anderson defected to Reform UK in March.

That's a wrap on a rowdy session of PMQs, which saw Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer spar over local election results and immigration.

They came just after we received the news that Natalie Elphicke, the MP for Dover, has defected from the Conservatives to Labour.

We'll be bringing you more updates and analysis, so stay with us.

Chris Mason
Political editor

Another one. Another defection. Another Conservative MP giving up on the Conservatives and crossing the floor to Labour.

Defections don’t happen very often. Or at least they don’t in normal times.

But barely days after Dan Poulter, a former Tory minister, switched to Labour, now Natalie Elphicke has too.

Little wonder there was chat beforehand that Sir Keir Starmer wanted to talk about small boat crossings. Natalie Elphicke is the MP for Dover.

Defections are head spinning for Westminster - such a tribal place.

They are a morale-lifting fillip for the party of the new arrival, and debilitating for the party they have departed, particularly when it is from the governing party to the main opposition party. Why?

They personify very starkly what an opposition party is seeking to do on a far wider scale - tempt people who recently backed the Conservatives to switch to backing Labour.

And the party political words of the defecting MP have an additional capacity to wound given their previous political home.

"Under Rishi Sunak, the Conservatives have become a byword for incompetence and division."

It is the sort of thing you wouldn’t be surprised to hear from a career Labour MP. But these are the words of someone who was a Conservative MP a matter of hours ago.

Labour will retain their existing candidate in Dover and Deal at the general election and Natalie Elphicke will stand down, we’re told.

But Keir Starmer will delight in the pictures of him welcoming Natalie Elphicke to his side of the House of Commons.

And expect to see the two of them together shortly doing the handshakes, warm words and broad smiles for the cameras.

We've brought you news of her defection, but who is Natalie Elphicke?

Elphicke, 53, was elected as Dover's Conservative MP in 2019, taking over the seat which had been held by her then-husband Charlie, who was jailed for two years after being found guilty in 2020 of sexually assaulting two women.

Natalie Elphicke, a former finance lawyer, is known for being outspoken about border security.

Image source, PA Media

Emma Lewell-Buck, Labour MP for South Shields, is up now and asking about child poverty.

She says the cross-party group 'Our Child of the North', external has found expectant mothers are terminating pregnancies because they can't afford another mouth to feed, while infant and child death rates are increasing in deprived areas.

Lewell-Buck ask the prime minister if this is his "plan for a brighter Britain in action"?

Sunak describes it as a "tragedy", and that no-one wants to see children grow up in those circumstances.

He says the government has overseen a "significant fall" in child poverty since 2010. He adds he'll make sure she's aware of the support offers in place for her constituents.

We're now hearing from SNP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, who begins by congratulating John Swinney on becoming the party's new leader and Scotland's first minister.

He then asks Sunak whether the UK will follow the US in pausing arms shipments to Israel.

Sunak responds that the UK government doesn't itself directly provide arms to Israel, adding that he is deeply concerned about the situation in Rafah - Gaza's southernmost city.

Sunak says he is continuing to urge all sides to bring about a pause and get aid in.

Flynn asks again, saying that UK arms and tech is supporting Israel activity and will be used in any attack on Rafah, whether the UK will halt arms sales to Israel.

Sunak responds that robust licensing is in place and the position on export licences is unchanged.

Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh asks if the government will "do the only thing that will be a deterrent and arrest and detain all those who land illegally on our shores".

Sunak agrees that the crossings are "incredibly dangerous" and says everything must be done to "break the criminal gangs".

Only this party has a plan to stop the boats, he adds.

Sunak replies that we are getting on and reforming, we are getting people into work and controlling migration - we are boosting defence spending.

Referring to Starmer, Sunak says he snipes from the sidelines while the Conservatives are building a better future.