'I am ashamed of what you have done': Rosie Duffield quits Labour with blistering attack on Starmer
28 September 2024, 17:59 | Updated: 29 September 2024, 07:19
Rosie Duffield MP has quit Labour - and launched an attack upon Sir Keir Starmer's leadership.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Ms Duffield, 53, is the fastest MP to leave a party after a general election in modern history.
In her resignation letter, the now-Independent MP for Canterbury, 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.”
Read More: I took freebies so my son could study for his GCSEs in peace, says Sir Keir Starmer
Of her reasons for quitting the party, she wrote: “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?”
The row over declarations by MPs and senior ministers overshadowed the Labour conference last week, with criticism aimed at both the PM and his ministers for accepting luxury gifts from wealthy donors while announcing cuts to the winter fuel allowance.
Sir Keir has said ministers will no longer take donations for clothing now they are in Government, but left the door open to receiving more access to events, such as the £4,000 worth of tickets to a Taylor Swift concert he accepted from the Premier League.
Asked whether he would rule out accepting such gifts in the future, he told ITV's Good Morning Britain: "I think that's a matter of judgment. There has to be good reason."
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?”
Speaking to the BBC in an interview for the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Ms Duffield said 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 also told the broadcaster the party leadership seemed "more about greed and power than making a difference", adding: "I just can't take any more."
