Ex-minister denies concealing Natalie Elphicke lobbying

Former justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland has denied concealing that he was lobbied by Natalie Elphicke over her then-husband's sexual assault case.

Sir Robert said a report in the Sunday Times that Mrs Elphicke asked for help to move the date of his case before she defected to Labour was accurate.

The Conservative MP told the BBC the matter was dealt with at the time and he made clear he would not intervene.

Mrs Elphicke has said the claims are "nonsense".

Charlie Elphicke was jailed in 2020 for two years, after being found guilty of sexually assaulting two women.

Mrs Elphicke, who replaced her former husband as MP for Dover, stood by him throughout the trial and supported his appeal but announced their marriage was ending after he was convicted.

After Mrs Elphicke defected from the Tories to Labour last week, the Sunday Times reported that she had raised her husband's case with Sir Robert in July 2020.

He told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme the meeting "related to the nature of the listing of the defendant's case, first on after the Covid lockdown, and whether or not it was appropriate for that to be listed in a way that would increase publicity on the case".

"My view was very straightforward - it is not a matter for politicians or the lord chancellor to even attempt to interfere or intervene on decisions made by independent judges," he said.

"That was made very clear and that was the end of the matter."

Pressed over why he did not raise the issue at the time, he said: "The matter was dealt with there and then… It's a matter now for the Labour Party."

He added that Conservative whips, who are responsible for party discipline, were aware "because I was cross and I didn't think it was an appropriate approach and I certainly wouldn't have had a meeting on that basis".

Sir Robert said the meeting had only come to light now because he was asked by the Sunday Times about it.

"It's certainly bizarre in the extreme for people to suggest that somehow I have done something wrong or concealed something," he said.

However, Labour has questioned why the former minister did not rise the issue earlier.

A party spokesman said Mrs Elphicke "totally rejects the characterisation of the meeting".

"If Robert Buckland had any genuine concerns about the meeting, then he should have raised them at the time, rather than making claims to the newspapers now Natalie has chosen to join the Labour Party," he said.

In response to the report in the Sunday Times, a spokesman for Mrs Elphicke said: "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."

Labour MP Rosie Duffield has called for her party to suspend Mrs Elphicke while it investigates the lobbying claims.

Mrs Elphicke and four other Conservative MPs were also found to have breached Parliament's code of conduct by attempting to influence legal proceedings.

They had written to senior members of the judiciary raising concerns that a more junior judge was considering publishing character references provided for Mrs Elphicke's husband.

Last week, Mrs Elphicke apologised, after an interview re-emerged in which she said her ex-husband was "an easy target" for false allegations because he was "attractive".