Tory MP paid £25,000 to speak about convicted sex offender ex-husband
Tory MP Natalie Elphicke was paid £25,000 for a tabloid article on her convicted sex offender ex-husband Charlie Elphicke, it has been revealed.
Natalie was paid the fee by The Sun in August. to speak about her marriage with Charlie, who is serving a two-year prison sentence.
Charlie – who was a Tory MP for Dover for nine years – was found guilty of sexual assault, after repeatedly groping one of his accusers and chasing her around the house while singing “I’m a naughty Tory, I’m a naughty Tory”.
Natalie, who left her ex-husband minutes after he was found guilty, details in the article that “the case has been really unpleasant, horrible, upsetting and humiliating”.
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“It was just awful,” she said.
The Spectator revealed yesterday that the latest register of MPs’ interests showed that Natalie was paid £25,000 by The Sun’s owner News UK on 26 August for “two newspaper articles” and 12 hours’ work.
Natalie said today: “These payments have been promptly and transparently declared on the Members Register of Interests, as is rightly required of all MPs.”
Charlie Elphicke was MP for Dover between 2010 and 2019.
He stood down at the last election, after being charged with sexual assault, with Natalie replacing him as the party’s candidate at the December election.