‘I tried my best to stay’: Labour freebies scandal 'smacks of greed', Rosie Duffield says

29 September 2024, 11:15 | Updated: 29 September 2024, 12:47

Former Labour MP Rosie Duffield has told LBC she “can’t believe” the “sleaze” she has seen within Sir Keir Starmer’s party.

The MP for Canterbury quit Labour with a scathing letter to Sir Keir Starmer on Saturday, just months after winning election with the party.

In her resignation letter, the now-Independent MP wrote to the Prime Minister: "I am so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party.”

Speaking to LBC’s Lewis Goodall on Sunday, she revealed she “had been thinking things through” for a "couple of years" before announcing her departure.

Read more: 'I am ashamed of what you have done': Rosie Duffield quits Labour with blistering attack on Starmer

"I tried my utmost, my best to stay in the party. I didn't want to leave," she said.

“I just can’t believe it, I can’t believe this is a Labour government.”

Ex-Labour MP Rosie Duffield speaks to Lewis Goodall | Watch again

Ms Duffiled highlighted the Party's decision to axe the winter fuel payment for pensioners while high-ranking members received thousands in free gifts.

On the freebies claimed by the prime minister: “This was the final straw for me, I think we’ve always held ourselves up as better than that, the public expects us and holds us to those standards.

“Keir Starmer made such a great thing about country before party and we are the party of service… In whose service is taking £30,000 worth of clothes while cutting the winter fuel payment for those who are earning £12,000 or £13,000 per year?

“We promised to be better than the sleaze we saw from Boris Johnson but here we are doing something that looks and sounds pretty similar.”

On whether it’s unfair to compare Keir Starmer’s freebies to the hundreds of millions spent on Covid contracts by the Conservative party, Ms Duffield said: “Keir Starmer made a big deal about wallpaper, what's the difference?

“We are either better than that or we’re not.

"Why is anybody earning the amount of money he earns taking £32,000 worth of clothes from somebody?

“It’s not ok for a Labour government to act like that, it just smacks of greed.”

Cabinet Minister Pat McFadden speaks to Lewis Goodall | Watch again

Ms Duffield said she has been trying to change the Labour Party from within for "seven years" but claimed the PM isn't interested in the opinions of his backbenchers.

“Keir has made it very clear he isn’t interested in the views of the backbenchers, there is no negotiation, there is no fight on the inside.”

Ms Duffield accused Starmer’s party of having a “woman problem.”

She claims a group of “influential young men” in the party have been the route of many of her disagreements with the party.

Labour’s Pat McFadden rejected these claims.

He told LBC on Sunday: “I don't believe in Starmer's lads club, I work with strong women around the cabinet table.”

Ms Duffield’s resignation letter ended with a scathing attack on Mr Starmer

She said: “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.

“Forcing a vote [on the winter fuel payment] to make many older people iller and colder while you and your favourite colleagues enjoy free family trips to events most people would have to save hard for — why are you not showing even the slightest bit of embarrassment?”

Ms Duffield, who became known for her outspoken gender-critical views, ended her letter with a personal attack on the Prime Minister.

She said: “As prime minister, your managerial style and technocratic approach, and lack of basic politics and political instincts, have come crashing down on us as a party after we worked so hard, promised so much, and waited a long 14 years to be mandated by the British public to return to power.

“Since the change of government in July, the revelations of hypocrisy have been staggering and increasingly outrageous. I cannot put into words how angry I and my colleagues are at your total lack of understanding about how you have made us all appear.

“How dare you take our longed-for victory, the electorate’s sacred and precious trust, and throw it back in their individual faces and the faces of dedicated and hardworking Labour MPs?”