Charlie Elphicke

In November 2017, Elphicke was suspended from the Conservative Party after "serious allegations" made against him were referred to the police. Elphicke stated: "I am not aware of what the alleged claims are and deny any wrongdoing."[4]

In March 2018, Elphicke was told that he was accused of sex offences against two members of his staff. He said in response: "I am completely confident I will be able to prove my innocence".[5] In April 2018, The Sunday Times reported that a rape allegation had been made against Elphicke in November 2017, at the height of the Westminster sex scandals, but that the police had not informed him of it for about five months.[35]

On 12 December 2018, Elphicke had the Conservative whip reinstated prior to a confidence vote in Theresa May.[6]

On 22 July 2019 the Crown Prosecution Service announced that they had charged Elphicke with three counts of sexual assault relating to two women.[7] He appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 6 September 2019 and denied three charges.[36] In their statement the CPS emphasised that Elphicke "has a right to a fair trial" and that "there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings".[7] The Conservative party again withdrew Elphicke's whip later that day. In October 2019 Elphicke appeared at Southwark Crown Court and was granted bail to return for trial on 29 June 2020.[37]

After the death of Robert Fraser, a teenager from Deal, after taking the opioid fentanyl on 19 November 2016, Elphicke and Fraser's mother, Michelle Parry, began a campaign for tougher Fentanyl laws.[38] Fentanyl, branded a 'one touch death drug', is a prescribed painkiller drug that is 50 times stronger than heroin, 100 times stronger than morphine and is the same drug that American singer Prince overdosed on.[39] Following the campaign, in February 2018, the Sentencing Council said that a review would begin soon for tougher punishments for cases involving the drug Fentanyl. Two months later the Director of Public Prosecutions wrote to Elphicke confirming that the Crown Prosecution Service's official drug offences guidance had been revised to include Fentanyl for the first time.[40]

The first change has been that the Crown Prosecution Service has now specified for prosecutors that in dealing with cases of fentanyl, they need to take into account the potency of this drug. They are encouraged to bring expert witnesses into the court room in order to explain how this drug operates, and how a tiny quantity of it can have the potency of heroin or cocaine in a larger quantity. The second change is that, if the quantity of the drug would cause as much harm as 5 kg of heroin, the offence will be in the most serious category.

During a debate called by Elphicke in Parliament, Justice Minister, Rory Stewart, announced Robert's Law, saying: "I really want to pay tribute to the honourable member for Dover and Deal. His leadership and his championing led to two very important changes which I can honestly say would not have happened so rapidly had it not been for his work."[41]

Following the UK's vote to leave the European Union, Elphicke decided to publish a series of papers[42] and articles to provide his views on the UK's post-Brexit position. This revolved around a theme of Britain being 'Ready on Day One' - which provided suggestions on how the UK should be Brexit-ready on the day it leaves the EU, regardless of the deal it strikes with the bloc. He published 'Ready on Day One' which called for:[43][42] resilient roads to the Channel Ports, efficient processing of customs controls, a new Entente Cordiale to extend the Le Touquet Treaty to cover customs co-operation and build a new era of deeper co-operation with France, a Brexit Infrastructure Bill and one Government at the border to ensure order. Elphicke subsequently wrote 'Tariffs Would Cost Europe Dear'. In the paper he argued:[42] tariffs would be more harmful to the EU than the UK due to the higher level of exports to the UK. Finally, he published 'The Withdrawal of the UK from the EU - Analysis of Potential Financial Liabilities' with the assistance of Martin Howe QC on behalf of the European Research Group.[42] The paper claimed that there was no legal or moral case for the UK to pay a divorce bill to the EU, instead, the EU could owe the UK€10bn for its share of the European Investment Bank.[44]

Elphicke is a prominent campaigner for fathers' rights, "leading a campaign by Families Need Fathers" and introducing a private members bill "to change family law and make it a legal right for children to know both of their parents".[45] In the Queen's Speech of 10 May 2012,[46] the Government announced that they intended to "legislate this area"[47] and on 13 June 2012, Children's Minister Tim Loughton announced that the law would be changed to guarantee children's access to both parents.[48] Elphicke was shortlisted for the Grassroot Diplomat Initiative Award in 2015 for his work on the Families Need Fathers campaign, and he remains in the directory of the Grassroot Diplomat Who's Who publication.[49]

Elphicke served as one of 11 members of the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) from his election until his appointment as a Parliamentary Private Secretary in 2012. The Committee, which scrutinises the civil service, called for ministers to accelerate civil service reform.[50] In one investigation, Elphicke looked at Ordnance Survey (OS) expenses for 2007–2010 totalling £8.7m. Items include a stay at a luxury hotel which cost over £3000 and a staff reward scheme which cost £32,100. OS said that the expenses involved sales staff.

In October 2012, PASC reviewed the Charities Act 2006, which no longer assumed that advancement of religion was beneficial per se, but had to serve a public interest.[51] Following a tribunal ruling on public interest relating to private schools, the Charity Commission had decided that unlike the druids, the Plymouth Brethren could not show it provided public worship for all as it was "exclusive". Secondly they deemed that its doctrine of separation, which limits time members spend with outsiders, may harm rather than benefit family life; though they accepted this was based on possibly outdated criticisms, not evidence.[52] They requested a test case to clarify public benefit. The Commission provided witness protection for former members. Elphicke said the commission was "committed to the suppression of religion".[53]

Elphicke investigated tax avoidance by American multinational companies and showed (October 2012) that some multinational companies, making billions of pounds of profit in the UK, were paying an effective UK tax rate of only 3 per cent.[54] He followed this by calling on George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer to force the companies which included Google, Coca-Cola and Apple Inc[55] to have to state the effective rate of tax they paid on their UK revenues, and suggested that Government contracts could be withheld from multinationals who do not pay their fair share of UK Tax.[56]

During the second reading of the Growth and Infrastructure Bill[57] in the House of Commons on 5 November, Elphicke reiterated the rates of tax paid to HMRC by some US multinationals. Many of the leading companies (including Starbucks,[58] Google and Amazon.com) have been called to give evidence over this issue, most recently raised by Elphicke, in front of the Public Accounts Select Committee in November 2012. At the same time as Elphicke pushed this issue up the domestic UK news agenda, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, raised it at the G20 meeting in Mexico City.[58] In concert with his German opposite number, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble Osborne called for action to combat tax avoidance[59] and to force corporations to pay their fair share of tax or face serious consequences.[60][61]

In a debate on Corporate Tax Avoidance on 7 January 2013,[62] MPs highlighted companies who accepted UK Government contracts but paid little or no tax. Elphicke singled out technology companies Oracle, Xerox, Dell, CSC and Symantec who – with a combined turnover of £7 billion – earned almost £0.5 billion from Government contracts and yet paid no corporation tax whatsoever. Overall he said 10 technology companies receiving over £1.8 billion from the taxpayer paid £78 million in taxes on UK earnings of just over £17.5 billion of turnover. This was "unacceptable, unethical and irresponsible."[63]

On 24 May 2013, Elphicke wrote an article for The Daily Telegraph concluding: "Amazon, Google and Starbucks are just the very small tip of a very, very large iceberg. The tax avoidance culture is deeply ingrained. There needs to be radical action to restore tax fairness and a level competitive playing field for British business. Axing tax breaks, simplification, a 10p business tax rate and international tax reform can and would make our tax system fairer and more competitive."[64]

In June 2014, Elphicke was one of a number of Conservative MPs who criticised Oxfam's Twitter and poster campaign against the government's austerity program. Oxfam had called for all parties to reduce food poverty in the UK; its posters highlighted a "perfect storm", which included references to zero-hour contracts, unemployment and benefit cuts. Elphicke described the campaign as shamefully political and an abuse of taxpayers' money. He also criticised directors' pay.[65] Debating the issue in The Observer, Helen Lewis suggested the MPs' objectives were to stop charities criticising the government,[66] whilst The Times said that guidelines had changed in the last decade, and some objectives previously deemed political were now accepted as charitable.[67] The Charity Commission ruled that although Oxfam's motives were not intentionally political, it could have done more to show its tweets related to its own report on food poverty.[68] In February 2015, following a report by Third Sector magazine that 32 charity bosses received over £200k in 2014, Elphicke expressed concern that trust in charities would be undermined and that people would not donate if they thought their pay was excessive.[69]

In August 2016, ahead of intergovernmental discussions with the French, possibly involving the Le Touquet Agreement, Elphicke advised ministers to remember that France had genuine concerns about terrorism and that both countries should concentrate on getting a long-term solution to problems rather than "threatening tit for tat."[70] Following a 2017 report citing the £1B annual cost of border security delays post Brexit, and the unfortunate timing of a replacement customs IT system due March 2019, but designed for the much smaller number of pre-Brexit declarations, Elphicke stated that the border was intended for taxation, not searching, and claimed that clearance at a similar border in Singapore took less than a minute.[71]

Elphicke has welcomed the announcement of the building of the new Buckland Hospital at Dover, as "it would save long journeys to hospitals in other parts of Kent."[72] Work planned to start in 2009 was delayed because of flood risks, but the go ahead was given in 2012[72] and the £24m hospital was opened in June 2015.[73] Elphicke described it as "a defining moment for the community."[73]

Elphicke campaigned against the privatisation of the Port of Dover prior to and since his election; he created an alternative proposal, which was put to the residents of Dover in a local referendum in March 2011, who voted by an overwhelming majority in favour of a "people's port" rather than privatisation – 5,244 votes in favour compared to 113 against.[74] He became one of the 8 directors of the People's Port Community Trust who led the campaign to buy the port of Dover for the community.[75] The People's Port campaign has also interested the Labour Party head of Policy, Dr Jon Cruddas, MP, who appears to see it as a mutual ownership model for national assets that could be adopted by the Labour Party.[76] For the Conservatives, Elphicke's proposal was seen as a key test of the David Cameron's Big Society policy.[77] Other Conservatives see Elphicke's proposal as a method of populist privatisation. The campaign also has the enthusiastic support of the Blue Labour founder, Lord Glasman, who sees it as "a story about Labour helping workers and exports ... It's everything Blue Labour stands for."[78]

On 9 April 2014, Shipping and Ports Minister Stephen Hammond MP visited Dover and paid tribute to Elphicke and the Harbour Board chair, George Jenkins, for progress made "in bridging the divide between port and town." He set out the board structure and steps needed to ensure an enduring solution in the key areas of community involvement, commercial development and regeneration. The trust would be given 'up to date' powers to raise funds for investment.[79] Elphicke said the People's Port Trust priorities were "partnership with the board, a voice for the community in the boardroom, and improvements for Dover with a community fund from the port."[80][81][82]

The instigation of additional border security following the 2016 Nice truck attack caused much publicised seven-mile queues, taking up to fourteen hours to process, on the A2 and A20. Elphicke criticised the Department for Transport and the Home Office, who were advised of but unprepared for delays.[83]

In August 2016, Elphicke called for light naval forces including the Royal Marines to prevent cross channel people trafficking. He compared the requirements with those of the First World War Dover Patrol, which used older ships to detect and deter enemy submarines from using the Channel.[84]