With the best will in the world, it is hard to see the defection of Natalie Elphicke MP to the Labour party as a noble deed.

You could paper the walls with disobliging observations that Ms Elphicke has made about Sir Keir Starmer’s party, especially when it comes to her supposed driving mission to restore control and rigour to UK borders.

The Tory benches these days are far too full of careerist hacks prepared to put their grandmothers up for sale if the price is right

Comments such as this from 2022: ‘If Labour’s only policy is to rely on the French, then they are not serious about stopping small boats, tackling criminality, protecting people from smuggling gangs or saving lives in the Channel.’

Or what about this hymn of praise for Rishi Sunak from 2023: ‘The Prime Minister’s deal with Albania has shown amazing success – near collapse of entrants, down 90 per cent from last year.’

Like Dan Poulter before her, she is not proposing to stand for Labour at the next election. This is being used to suggest she is not in the business of saving her own neck but has instead sincerely converted to the Labour cause.

Well, let us wait for the first couple of rounds of Labour ennoblements and the distribution of lush quango gigs after Starmer has his feet under the cabinet table before we take a mature judgment on that one.

Elphicke’s defection statement seemed to have the flavour of a hostage note as she observed of Labour: ‘Since 2019 it has moved on from Jeremy Corbyn and now, under Keir Starmer, occupies the centre ground of British politics… the modern Labour party looks to the future – to building a Britain of hope, optimism, opportunity and fairness.’

On and on it went, praising the red team for its plans ‘to build the homes we need, help young people onto the housing ladder and care about the vulnerable and homeless.’

‘That’s why it’s time for change. Time for a Labour government led by Keir Starmer. The general election cannot come soon enough,’ she concluded in a passage that carried so many current Labour key messages it made you wonder if the whole thing might not have actually been written by her.

To put her name next to this flannel she must have got something significant in return. And I am afraid many people will suppose that getting something for herself has been Ms Elphicke’s primary motivation here.

The Tory benches these days are far too full of careerist hacks prepared to put their grandmothers up for sale if the price is right. A decade ago, I played a small role in the unveiling of Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless as defectors from the Conservatives to Ukip. Both put themselves up for and won subsequent by-elections. Both believed, as Mr Reckless memorably put it, that Britain was worth ‘more than a star on someone else’s flag.’

Compared to such principled deeds, Ms Elphicke’s scuttling off to Labour seems very much less impressive or values-driven. Yet by its very lowness the act conveys an important message: the power of prime ministerial patronage is already seeping from the incumbent to the Leader of the Opposition. The ‘system people’ have calculated that Starmer is already home and hosed.