Rosie Duffield has quit as a Labour MP, attacking Sir Keir Starmer’s “cruel and unnecessary policies” and the freebie row engulfing the party.
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.”
Turning to policy announcements made since Labour came to power, 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.”
She added: “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?”
Sir Keir has been under intense scrutiny over donations from Lord Alli, and it emerged on Saturday he had received a further £16,000 from the prominent Labour donor.
He has faced calls for an investigation over the affair, with the SNP calling on the House of Commons standards commissioner to launch a probe. The row has been dubbed “passes for glasses” after questions were raised about who approved a Downing Street pass for Lord Alli after Labour’s general election win.
Sir Keir also used Lord Alli’s £18m penthouse flat for free during the general election campaign, saying it was in order for his son to have somewhere peaceful to study for his GCSEs.
In July, Rachel Reeves announced that older people not in receipt of pension credits or other means-tested benefits will no longer receive winter fuel payments from this year onwards.
The decision came as part of a series of spending cuts to address a “black hole” in the public finances left by the previous Conservative government announced in July by the chancellor.
But the move, which will affect around 10 million pensioners, sparked fury from backbench MPs, with Ms Duffield among those speaking out against it.
In the damning resignation letter, Ms Duffield said: “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.
“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.”
Ms Duffield is a friend of author JK Rowling and was backed by Ms Rowling amid a row over her stance on women’s and trans rights.
She previously accused the Labour Party of showing her the cold shoulder over her views on the issue.
But she has denied her gender critical views are the reason for her quitting the party, telling The Sunday Times: “With my [gender critical] views, all I wanted was for those views to be taken seriously and discussed and I think as a movement the Labour Party has shifted and we are talking about those things now.”
Labour was approached for comment.