Labour MP quits over fuel payments and gifts scandal

Rosie Duffield has quit as a Labour MP, attacking Sir Keir Starmer’s “cruel and unnecessary policies” and the freebie row engulfing the party.

- ARCHIE MITCHELL

The Canterbury MP and long time critic of Sir Keir will sit as an independent after resigning the Labour whip “with immediate effect”.

In a damning resignation letter, Ms Duffield lashed out at Sir Keir’s acceptance of more than £100,000 of clothes, glasses and accommodation from Labour peer Waheed Alli.

And she condemned the prime minister’s decision to retain the two-child benefit cap while scrapping winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners.

Ms Duffield has regularly complained about Sir Keir and the direction of the party. The Labour leader has previously called for tolerance in the trans debate after she aired her views.

In the letter, published in The Sunday Times, Ms Duffield said: “The sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice are off the scale.

“I am so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party.”