LABOUR voters are being exploited and taken for granted, Rosie Duffield, the Canterbury MP, said, quitting the party in disgust on Saturday.
She resigned the Labour whip after accusing Prime Minster Sir Keir Starmer of hypocrisy over the donations scandal while imposing “cruel and unnecessary” benefit cuts.
In her resignation letter, she attacked Sir Keir's decision to keep the two-child benefit cap and means-test winter fuel payments.
She also condemned his handling of the outcry over gifts given to him— amounting to more than £100,000 over five years — and other senior Labour figures.
“The sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice are off the scale,” her letter said. “I am so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once-proud party.
“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 those people can grasp — this is entirely undeserving of holding the title of Labour prime minister.”
Speaking on BBC TV today, Ms Duffield claimed she had felt “grubby” for asking for donations to campaign for re-election.
Ms Duffield claimed the party was “in my heart and in my soul,” but she has lost her faith in the leadership.
“We all had our faith in Keir Starmer and a Labour government, and I feel that voters and activists and MPs are being completely laughed at and completely taken for granted,” she said.
“It is so profoundly disappointing to me as a Labour voter and an activist … to see this is what we have become.”
She said the party leadership seemed “more about greed and power than making a difference," adding: “I just can’t take any more.”
Relations between Ms Duffield and the Labour leadership have long been strained, particularly on issues of sex and gender.
She has voiced gender-critical views which have angered many trans activists.
Her resignation has made her the fastest MP to jump ship from a newly elected government in modern political history.
She now intends to sit as an independent MP.
