Labour MP Quits Over Party "Sleaze" And "Nepotism"

Labour MP Rosie Duffield has resigned the Labour whip with "immediate effect", accusing Prime Minister Keir Starmer of enacting “cruel and unnecessary” policies and "tarnishing" the party by accepting gifts worth thousands of pounds.

Duffield, who has been the MP for Canterbury since 2017, will continue to sit in Parliament as an independent MP. 

"My reason for leaving now is the programme of policies you seem determined to stick to, however unpopular they are with the electorate and your own MPs," she wrote in her resignation letter to the prime minister, published in The Sunday Times.

"You repeat often that you will make the 'tough decisions' and that the country is 'all in this together'. But those decisions do not directly affect any one of us in Parliament.

"They are cruel and unnecessary, and affect hundreds of thousands of our poorest, most vulnerable constituents. This is not what I was elected to do. It is not even wise politics, and it certainly is not 'the politics of service'."

Accusing Starmer and his inner circle of "sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice", she wrote that she was "ashamed" of their actions, particularly on the decision to retain the two-child benefit cap and axe the winter fuel payment for all but the poorest pensioners.

“Someone with far-above-average wealth choosing to keep the Conservatives’ two-child limit to benefit payments which entrenches children in poverty, while inexplicably accepting expensive personal gifts of designer suits and glasses costing more than most of these people can grasp — this is entirely undeserving of holding the title of Labour prime minister," Duffield wrote.

She accused Starmer of "various heavy-handed management tactics" without showing any "true or inspiring