David Cameron lashed out at Labor over Natalie Elphicke's defection, as he said it shows Keir Starmer's party stood for nothing.
The former prime minister ridiculed the opposition for this brazen political stunt, saying they are “falling for everything”.
'What does this tell us about the party she is a member of? If you don't stand for something in life, you will fall for everything,” the foreign minister said.
“I thought that was kind of what yesterday showed, that there is no policy on anything, it's just about getting things in order and drawing attention to the ruling party.”
Responding to questions after a speech in London, he added: “When you get close to an election, it stops being a referendum on the ruling party and becomes a choice between two parties.
“And yesterday I thought, when you wake up and hear about the apostasy, you think, 'oh no, not another one, how are we going to handle this?'
“At the end of the day it was like 'that says so much more about it' Keir Starmer and that the Labor Party has no plan at all other than to have a Prime Minister who is a good person and does a great job at a difficult time.”
His scathing attack came after Penny Mordaunt compared Sir Keir to a crab and accused him of leading 'Operation Radish' in a bid to convince voters that Labor 'looks red on the outside'.
Mrs. Mordaunt said of the recent defection of the Tories to Labour: “What it has exposed is a pattern of behavior by the Leader of the Opposition.
“It's a shame we don't expect an update to Peter Brookes' Nature Notes, as the decorator crab is a species that covers its surface with materials to disguise its true form, usually selecting sedentary creatures and seaweed.
“The Leader of the Opposition is the decoration crab of these benches, desperate to show that he is not really leading the Labor Party at all. He has channeled Margaret Thatcher, his deputy has praised Boris (Johnson), he has expelled with great fanfare the Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) – a man for whom he had only moments before campaigned to become Prime Minister.
'Its exterior is plastered with St. George's flags, his Gunners season ticket and various programs from the Last Night of the Proms. What next: a photo with a bulldog?
'A lecture on how misunderstood Enoch Powell was? Should I ask the Duty Whip on the Front Bench if he has recently reported to the Honorable Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mark Francois)?
“This is Operation Radish: the concerted attempt to convince the British public that while the Labor Party may look red on the outside, at its core it is not.
“But even the walking away from our benches by Labour's harshest critics cannot disguise the fact that Operation Radish is not going well.”
Ms Mordaunt said the newly elected Labor mayors had chosen to raise issues in relation to this Israel and Gaza rather than local affairs, adding that “the politics of the PLP (Parliamentary Workers' Party) is more the politics of the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization).”
Education Minister Gillian Keegan also took aim at the Tory defector, saying this was a “very strange combination” for the Labor Party given the Dover and Deal MP's views on immigration.
Asked whether she feared other Tory MPs would follow suit and defect, Ms Keegan told Times Radio she hoped most of her other colleagues were “more principled than that”.
She said it was not clear what deal Ms Elphicke had made to appeal to Labor and there was “all kinds of speculation” about why she would do that.
She told LBC about Ms Elphicke: “Her principles, her policies and her positions have changed as often as Keir Starmer'S.
“I don't really know her, she is much further to the right in the party. I think someone said they couldn't find anyone more right-wing than Natalie Elphicke.
“So I don't really know her that well, but obviously she's miraculously had a huge 180 degree change in some of her views, I think overnight, and I'm not 100% there sure of how you can change your views and principles so quickly.”
Labor leader Anneliese Dodds said she believes Ms Elphicke is a good fit for Labor and said “people can change their minds”.
Mrs. Dodds told it BBC Breakfast: “I can see in her statement that what she has set out is absolutely fundamental to the Labor Party…ensuring that we have a country that is safe, ensuring that we deliver on those security issues, and also ensuring that we deliver Naturally we also achieve results in the field of housing.
“People can change their minds and, as I said before, Natalie Elphicke is not the first Conservative MP to make this decision.”
She added: “Of course they are like the many Conservative voters – and voters from other parties too – who have realized that those parties cannot deliver on the issues they care about, that they must instead support a party that a plan to tackle the cost of living crisis, to get our public services off their knees and fit them for the future.
“Natalie Elphicke is making the same decision as so many other former Conservative supporters across the country, and I think it is absolutely right that she has done so because she is clearly putting her Dover voters first.”
She also said the Tory deserter has already been held accountable for previous comments she made in defense of her ex-husband after he was convicted of sexual assault.
Ms Elphicke's former husband and predecessor as MP for Dover Charlie Elphicke was convicted of sexually assaulting two women in 2020 and sentenced to two years in prison.
Although she ended the marriage after his conviction, Ms Elphicke supported his failed appeal, saying Elphicke had been “attractive and attracted to women” and “an easy target for dirty politics and false accusations”.
Asked about these comments, Ms Dodds told Times Radio: “This is of course an incredibly serious issue and there was, rightly, a judicial process surrounding this sexual assault.
“There was responsibility for Natalie Elphicke in the fact that there was a parliamentary process around this.
“It is absolutely right that there has been a parliamentary process, as I say, Natalie Elphicke has gone through that, and I believe she has discussed this in Parliament and in public, and rightly so, because this is a very serious subject. ”