Natalie Elphicke: More Tories ‘pondering defecting’ as new Labour MP sorry for ‘abhorrent’ remarks – live

A minister says Sir Keir Starmer’s acceptance of Natalie Elphicke as a Labour MP is remarkable when the party “has no room” for Jeremy Corbyn or Diane Abbott.

Security minister Tom Tugendhat told Sky News’s Politics Hub: “He’s got a party that has Zarah Sultana on one side and Natalie Elphicke on the other but has no room for the guy he wanted to put into No 10 only a few years ago, Jeremy Corbyn, or Diane Abbott, who’s been campaigning for the Labour movement for what is it, 20 or 30 years? It’s a remarkable thing.”

He added: “And I like Keir, he’s a decent guy, but I have no idea what he stands for.”

Labour will use new counter-terrorism powers to tackle people-smuggling gangs bringing migrants across the Channel in small boats, Sir Keir Starmer is set to announce on Friday.

In a speech on the Kent coast, the party leader will set out his plans to tackle the small boats crisis if it wins the general election.

Sir Keir is expected to say Labour will “replace gimmicks with graft”, scrapping the government’s Rwanda scheme and using some of the money saved to fund a new “elite Border Security Command” led by a former police, military or intelligence chief.

Attacking the government’s approach as “rank incompetence”, he is expected to accuse the Conservatives of operating a “Travelodge amnesty” by housing migrants in hotels rather than processing their claims.

Among the measures to be proposed by Sir Keir are new border-control stop-and-searches, building on powers created in 2000 by the Terrorism Act, along with new financial investigation powers and search and seizure warrants targeting organised immigration crime.

The new Border Security Command would bring together agencies including the National Crime Agency, Immigration Enforcement and MI5, while Labour will also pledge to hire hundreds of new specialist investigators to work across the UK and Europe to tackle people smuggling.

Sir Keir will also stress his experience as the former head of the Crown Prosecution Service and pledge to make Britain “hostile territory” for people-smugglers.

He will say: “A business that pits nation against nation, thrives in the grey areas of our rules, the cracks between our institutions, where, they believe, they can exploit some of the most vulnerable people in the world with impunity.

“It’s a vile trade that preys on the desperation and hope it finds in its victims.”

Civil servants should be paid more to attract the best talent to Whitehall, and the outdated process of appointments is too easily “gamed”, according to research by a leading think tank.

Exclusive: The government is accused of ‘avoiding scrutiny’ by denying a visit of a UN special rapporteur:

The Dover MP crossed the floor in the Commons as she hit out at the “broken promises of Rishi Sunak’s tired and chaotic Government”.

She said: “I have carefully considered this decision. The change has been dramatic and cannot be ignored.”

At PMQs, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer asked Mr Sunak “what is the point of this failed Government staggering on” when “the Tory MP for Dover on the front line of small boats crisis says the Prime Minister cannot be trusted with our borders and joins Labour?”

Mr Sunak’s government has told the UN special rapporteur on the right to food that he cannot visit the UK until next year. Professor Michael Fakhri, who uses his role to study hunger and food insecurity in countries around the world, asked to make a formal visit to the UK more than 20 months ago.

Labour MPs erupted in fury as a rightwing Tory told the Commons that he has instructed his constituency staff to refuse any cases brought to him by asylum seekers.

Calls of “resign!” could be heard across the chamber as Dudley North MP Marco Longhi got up to speak.

His intervention was another shot across the bows for Rishi Sunak with the right of his party making their views clear on his failure to stop the small boats with asylum seekers on them.