Tory defector Natalie Elphicke has been accused of lobbying the justice secretary in 2020 to interfere in her then-husband’s criminal sex offences trial.
One person present viewed her comments as a bid to have the case moved to a lower-profile court to spare her partner public scrutiny, while another saw it as an attempt to replace the senior judge, according to the newspaper. Ms Elphicke’s former husband and predecessor as MP for Dover was later convicted of sexually assaulting two women and jailed for two years.
A spokesman for Ms Elphicke told the newspaper: “This is nonsense. It’s certainly true that Mr Elphicke continued to be supported after his imprisonment by a large number of Conservative MPs who had known him for a long time, including some who visited him and independently lobbied on his behalf, which was nothing to do with Natalie.”
Natalie Elphicke defended her husband after the allegations emerged and accompanied him to Southwark Crown Court throughout the trial There was further Tory briefing against Ms Elphicke in The Observer, which was told by party sources that she quit the Conservatives because she was “bitter” about being denied a ministerial job in charge of housing policy.