Labour should launch an investigation over claims Natalie Elphicke lobbied ministers to intervene in her ex-husband’s sex assault trial, a Tory frontbencher suggested this morning. 

Maria Caulfield, a health minister, told Times Radio that whether there is a probe is ultimately up to Labour after Ms Elphicke’s defection to the party last week but she believed “there probably should be”. 

It was alleged at the weekend that Ms Elphicke asked Sir Robert Buckland, the former justice secretary, to speak to the judge who was going to preside over her former husband Charlie Elphicke’s trial four years ago for sex assaults on two women.

Ms Elphicke allegedly wanted the trial date moved to a less high-profile slot in the court listings and questioned whether the senior judge presiding over it would be excessively tough on her former husband.

Sir Robert told her it would be “completely inappropriate” for him to speak to the judge. Ms Elphicke has claimed the allegations are “nonsense” and Labour has questioned why the concerns were not raised at the time of the trial four years ago.

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