MP Rosie Duffield quits Labour over Starmer 'hypocrisy'

Tom McArthur
BBC News
Damian Grammaticas
Political correspondent

MP Rosie Duffield says she is quitting Labour over leader Keir Starmer's "cruel" policies and "hypocrisy" over his acceptance of gifts.

In her resignation letter, published by the Sunday Times, external, the Canterbury MP lambasts the prime minister for accepting gifts worth tens of thousands of pounds while scrapping the winter fuel payment and keeping the two-child benefit cap.

In the letter she said the “revelations” since the change of government in July had 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."

First elected in 2017, Duffield's decision to quit the party follows the suspension of seven other Labour MPs who rebelled on the King's Speech by voting for a motion calling for the two-child benefit cap to be abolished.

The total number of independent MPs in parliament is now 14.

Duffield's letter said she intended to sit as an independent MP "guided by my core Labour values".

In July, the government said the winter fuel payment to pensioners would now be made only to those on low incomes who received certain benefits, prompting an outcry from MPs and campaigners.

It has come under criticism - internally and externally - over the move to means-test the payments, with the Unite union winning a non-binding vote at the party's conference last week. But ministers argue "difficult decisions" had to be made because of "undisclosed" overspending by the previous Tory government.

The prime minister came under fire after it initially emerged he had received more than £16,000 for work clothing and spectacles for him, and further donations for his wife, from Labour peer Waheed Alli.

Sir Keir has also defended accepting £20,000 worth of accommodation from Lord Alli during the election campaign so his son could revise for his GCSEs without the media outside his home.

In her letter 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.”

She added: "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."

Duffield and Sir Keir have long had a strained relationship.

But that she has chosen to go so soon into his premiership, and with such bitter criticism of him, is a surprise and certainly damaging for the prime minister.

Her letter is not prefaced by any of the niceties that sometimes accompany such departures. Instead it is deliberately, publicly cutting about him, his leadership, his policies and his behaviour.

Those around Sir Keir were certainly hoping that the criticism over donations was dying down, and that his Downing Street could move on and focus on "delivery".

Duffield's letter has placed that issue, and the disquiet among Labour MPs over means-testing the winter fuel allowance, right back in the spotlight.

It has given ammunition to Sir Keir’s critics. Conservatives will no doubt quote them liberally at their Party Conference this week.

Ms Duffield may prove to be a lone dissenter choosing to resign so soon after Labour’s landslide.

But the manner of her departure will have repercussions that reverberate for some time.

In her letter, Duffield also criticised the prime minister for promoting people with "no proven political skills" and said he had been "elevated immediately to a shadow cabinet position without following the usual path of honing your political skills on the backbenches".

Sir Keir was given a shadow home office cabinet role in 2015, just two months into his time as an MP, and in turn appointed several newly-elected MPs to junior ministerial positions in 2024.

One of those, Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer, is the son of Sir Keir's first shadow attorney general Lord Falconer, while Liam Conlon, son of Number 10 chief of staff Sue Gray, was made a parliamentary aid to Department for Transport.

Duffield relationship with senior figures in the party has especially been strained over her views on trans issues - where she had used social media to outline her own position.

She believes there should be protected spaces where those born male are not allowed to go, like domestic violence refuges and prisons, and she is against people being able to self-identify as trans to gain access to those spaces.

Differences with Sir Keir surfaced again during this year’s general election campaign, when he was questioned about his past criticism of her stance on trans issues.

She was previously placed under investigation by the party after she liked a tweet from comedy writer Graham Linehan.

In January 2024 she said the party's National Executive Committee "completely exonerated" her of allegations of antisemitism and transphobia.

Responding to Duffield’s resignation, Nadia Whittom, Labour MP for Nottingham East, said: "It is deeply disappointing that she has been allowed the privilege of resigning, as she should have lost the whip a long time ago.”

But Dr Simon Opher, Labour's MP for Stroud, said he was "really sorry" the party had lost her.

"While I may not share all her politics, I know that we have everything to gain by working together.”

Tory leadership contender Tom Tugendhat said Duffield "made her point very clear... Labour Party and Keir Starmer government is not about service. It's not about delivering for the British people. It's about self service."

Asked by the BBC if Duffield would be welcomed into the Conservative Party, Tugendhat said: "That's really a decision for her... but I strongly suspect she won't be asking".

Fellow Tory leadership contender James Cleverly, who like Tugendhat is arriving in Birmingham for the Conservative Party conference, told the BBC: "She's said it all."

Tory leadership rival Robert Jenrick declined to comment.

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