DAN HODGES: Keir Starmer has sold his soul to hard-Right Tory defector Natalie Elphicke… and his party will NEVER forgive this moment of betrayal

• e-mail

On January 4, Keir Starmer walked to a podium at the National Composites Centre in Bristol and pledged to end the culture of cynicism which he claimed was toxifying politics.

'Hold on to the flickering hope in your heart that things can be better,' he begged a jaded electorate. 'You can choose the hope of national renewal, the responsibility of service, what politics can and should be. And you can reject the pointless populist gestures, the low road cynicism that the Tories believe is all you deserve.'

It was all a charade. Labour's leader never had any intention of draining the Westminster swamp. Or tackling the naked self-interest and political chicanery so despised by the British people. All he really wanted was to seduce everyone with his honeyed words long enough to secure his own tenancy of Downing Street.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer welcomes Natalie Elphicke to his party

We know this because of what happened last Wednesday, when Sir Keir performed one of the most cynical, populist, low road stunts ever seen in the national political arena – and welcomed hard-Right Dover Tory MP Natalie Elphicke into his ranks.

Despite the dysfunctionality at the heart of our body politic, most Members of Parliament are honourable, principled public servants who use their office solely to better the lives of their constituents. Elphicke is not among their number. She is, to be frank, a piece of work.

In 2020, her then husband Charlie Elphicke was convicted of sexual assault. Immediately following that conviction, his wife wrote on parliamentary-headed paper to Dame Kathryn Thirlwall, deputy senior presiding judge for England and Wales, and Dame Victoria Sharp, president of the Queen's bench division, in an attempt to influence the potential release of her husband's pre-sentencing character references.

A subsequent investigation by the Commons Committee on Standards found that though her attempt had failed, Ms Elphicke's communication represented 'an attempt improperly to influence judicial proceedings'.

Following Charlie Elphicke's sentencing at Southwark Crown Court, she then took to the media to traduce his victims. One had been 'embarrassingly and gushingly obsessed with him,' she claimed. Her husband had fallen foul of 'dirty politics and false allegations'. He was, she said, 'charming, wealthy, charismatic and successful'.

The Register of Members Interests subsequently revealed she had received a payment of £25,000 for two articles she had written about her husband's conviction.

Last Thursday – a day after being photographed smiling and shaking hands with Keir Starmer – Ms Elphicke suddenly recanted. Speaking of her now ex-husband, she said: 'I have previously, and do, condemn his behaviour towards other women and towards me.

'It was right that he was prosecuted and I'm sorry for the comments I made about his victims.'

Ever since Starmer became Labour leader, he has attempted to frame himself as his party's Atticus Finch, Gregory Peck's crusading lawyer from To Kill A Mocking Bird. Fortunately, his Faustian pact with Natalie Elphicke has now laid that conceit to rest.

He is no worse – but no better – than every other political leader who has dealt their cards from the bottom of the deck in a naked pursuit of power.

And there's no shame in that. As Leader of the Opposition, a ruthless, if hypocritical, focus on getting one over on his political rivals is part of the job description.

But Elphicke's defection has led some of those rivals – and a significant number of Starmer's own parliamentary allies – to start questioning his judgment.

Starmer's Faustian pact with Natalie Elphicke has revealed he is no worse – but no better – than every other political leader who has dealt their cards from the bottom of the deck in a naked pursuit of power, Dan Hodges writes

'I don't get it,' a senior Tory strategist said to me. 'Why did he take the risk of bringing her across? What happened to the Ming vase strategy? Instead of cradling it, he's just booted it halfway across the room.'

A shadow minister agrees. 'The problem is that Starmer's team are becoming too fetishistic about appealing to voters on the Right. Blair and Brown were always careful to take the whole of the coalition with them. They're not seeing the bigger picture.'

In response, Starmer's allies say their man is looking at nothing but the wider electoral canvas.

'All that voters will see is another Tory switching to us. And someone who's solid on stopping the boats. It's a good way to neutralise the issue,' one told me approvingly.

But there are two problems with that analysis.

The first is the small boats issue has already been neutralised. Along with every other issue. Starmer could be caught off Beachy Head piloting a fishing smack packed to the gunwales with asylum-seekers and it wouldn't make the slightest difference.

For good or ill, people have decided that whatever the flaws in Labour's policy offer, what the Tories are offering is worse. And they will not change their minds between now and polling day.

Second, Natalie Elphicke is not just another Tory. Her back catalogue of victim-blaming and myopic support for her sex-abusing husband are common knowledge within Westminster. Yet for some reason Starmer – and his chief of staff Sue Gray, the former head of government propriety and ethics – seem to have been unaware of or unconcerned by it.

Demonstrating again that, when it's politically convenient, Starmer's famed forensic prosecutorial skills mysteriously desert him.

Today, Labour's leader is basking in the tainted glow of his political coup. But he should be wary, because one day he will face a reckoning over it. History will record that moment when Natalie Elphicke walked across the floor of the Commons chamber as the moment the umbilical cord linking Starmer to his party was severed.

The Shadow Ministers who were blindsided by the move, then sent out on the media to defend it. The Labour MPs who looked on aghast as one of their most antagonistic foes squeezed into place alongside them. The activists who were tasked with explaining their party's perfidy on the doorstep.

None of them will forget the moment of betrayal. Yes, they will push it to the back of their minds on that glorious night when Labour wins its majority. And they will keep it suppressed in those heady months that follow. But as time passes, and the new PM's popularity fades, the sense of betrayal will slowly but surely work its way back into their consciousness. And they will remind themselves: 'Starmer was never really one of us.'

Just ask Tony Blair. He won the trust of the British people, but at the expense of the trust and affection of his own party. And in the end they turned on him.

So it will be for Labour's current leader. Sir Keir has sold his soul to Natalie Elphicke. And he will never be forgiven for it.