Duffield's letter is a warning Starmer ignores at his peril

A bit like the little boy in the old fairytale The Emperor’s New Clothes, who points out that the ruler is naked, sometimes someone says what everyone else is thinking but is too scared to express.

- DAVID MADDOX

Rosie Duffield’s castigating letter to Keir Starmer certainly falls into this category, as she surgically dismembered what have been a dreadful first 10 weeks for the new Labour government with almost brutal glee.

Critics of the Canterbury MP – and there are many – will point out that she has been an outlier in the party for several years now, sitting on its fringes after her attacks on trans rights and her support for figures like JK Rowling made her a hero to some and a bigoted villain to others. Starmer was always in the latter camp in that debate.

There were constant rumours that Duffield might switch to the Tories. Certainly she was wooed, but she never crossed the floor, and the suggestion was always dismissed as another attempt to poison her reputation. In her resignation letter, she emphasises her union roots and her belief in social democracy, and questions whether the position of Starmer himself is more akin to Tory thinking.

It is absolutely fair to say that when she ran for Labour in July, she did so not exactly as a supporter of Starmer, or of what he stands for. However, anyone who feels the need to pile in to Duffield now because they want to defend Starmer should ask themselves this question: what would I say if this were a Tory MP resigning the whip because of the actions of a Tory government? If you did not demand that Natalie Elphicke stand down immediately and allow a by-election to take place, then you should probably hold your peace with Duffield.