Keir Starmer says he wants to help women. How can we trust him after Natalie Elphicke? 

I’m sure I wasn’t alone in feeling shocked and baffled by the Labour Party yesterday. 

I watched on in horror as they allowed outspoken victim blamer, Natalie Ephicke, to defect from the Conservatives. 

As someone who campaigns for, advises on and researches preventing violence against women and girls, it felt like a slap in the face to see Keir Starmer welcoming her. 

My previous knowledge of Elphicke was limited. I knew her as the ex-wife of disgraced former MP Charlie Elphicke, the ‘naughty Tory’ who was jailed for sexual assault against two women in 2020. 

But I have since learned that Elphicke defended her husband by suggesting that the two women who reported him were weaponising the ‘current climate’ – which I presume refers to #MeToo – to make malicious allegations against an ordinary, innocent man. 

In comments regarding his conviction – which she has since apologised for – Elphicke suggested that his attractiveness made him ‘an easy target for dirty politics and false allegations’ and went on to describe his sentencing as a ‘miscarriage of justice’. 

As if this wasn’t bad enough, in 2021, she was temporarily suspended from the House of Commons for attempting to influence the judge in her ex-husband’s trial.

She wrote to senior judges on Commons stationary, along with several other Conservative MPs, to ‘express concern’ about a hearing on the release of pre-sentencing character references for Charlie Elphicke.

This hardly presents as someone who is committed to either protecting women or improving the woeful chances of conviction that victim-survivors currently face in our broken criminal justice system.

At first glance, Elphicke’s political stance and voting record appear to be grossly misaligned with the core values of Labour: votes against climate change prevention, criticism of Labour’s immigration stance (Elphicke chose Christmas Day to condemn small boats crossing the Channel) and her well-publicised comments towards Marcus Rashford, advising him to focus on ‘perfecting his game’ during his campaign to help feed hungry children. 

It certainly feels at odds for Labour to accept such an outspoken critic of ‘Sir Softie’ (Elphicke’s nickname for Keir Starmer) even based on those policies, without the irony that Labour will, presumably, be campaigning hard on their manifesto pledge to ‘halve violence against women and girls’ for the impending general election. 

How seriously can women take Sir Keir’s commitment to pledges such as dedicated ‘rape courts’ and specialist domestic violence call handlers to improve response and outcomes for victim-survivors of male violence, following such a gracious welcome to a victim-blamer such as Elphicke?

In my daily work, I educate about and raise awareness of victim-blaming. 

I’ve found that women, as much as men, are guilty of deflecting the accountability for male violence back to women through deeply-rooted misperceptions about sexual and domestic abuse. 

And this problem is so deeply embedded in our society that it is normalised for victims to be asked questions like, ‘what were you wearing?’ and ‘how much did you drink?’. 

Beliefs such as those expressed by Elphicke in her assertion that a man being ‘attractive’ and ‘attracted to women’ make him a target in today’s landscape are commonly utilised to discredit victim-survivors. 

Additionally, the myth that women who report rape are intent on ruining men’s reputations through vexatious allegations has been debunked repeatedly. 

Yet, these narratives prevail amongst those who wilfully defend abusive men in positions of power and privilege. 

Our social and cultural tropes of hysterical women and the mythical weaponisation of social movements encouraging women to report their experiences are common lines of those defending abusers. 

It harms victim-survivors and prevents other women reporting abuse and incidents of violence, and goes a long way to explain why we have a shamefully low conviction rate for rape in the UK.

As of 2023, fewer than three in 100 rapes recorded by police resulted in someone being charged that same year. And it was found in 2022 that more than 99% of rapes reported to the police do not end in a conviction. 

Perhaps both Sir Starmer and Ms Elphicke would benefit from looking at the current statistics regarding sexual violence, demonstrating a 17% increase sexual offences since 2020, and sitting at a shocking 116% higher than in 2015.  

And according to Rape Crisis England & Wales, five out of six rapes are never reported. There are currently 10,141 people waiting for their case to go to court. 

It doesn’t take much to understand why, when women who do come forward are publicly blamed, shamed and disbelieved by our political figures.

The only comfort we can take from Keir Starmer welcoming these views to the party is the fact Natalie Elphicke has stated she will be stepping down at the election. 

But with the trust and faith in our political leaders and police at an all-time low for women, was this political point-scoring a price too high to pay for Labour?

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk. 

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