Rosie Duffield has resigned as a Labour MP as a result of the party’s “cruel and unnecessary policies” in a bitter blow to Prime Minister Keir Starmer. In doing so, Duffield, 53, becomes the fastest MP to resign following a general election victory in history. In a lengthy resignation letter, Ms Duffield pointed to the controversy over freebies in addition to the removal of the winter fuel allowance and failure to remove the two-child benefit cap as the reasons for her decision.
Ms Duffield said: “You repeat often that you will make the ‘tough decisions’ and that the country is ‘all in this together.’ But those decisions do not directly affect any of us in parliament. “They are cruel and unnecessary and affect hundreds and thousands of our poorest, most vulnerable constituents.
” @RosieDuffield1 resigns the Labour whip citing the PM’s “cruel and unnecessary policies”. pic.twitter.
com/yrvMavn3rx Ms Duffield also pointed towards the prime minister’s “heavy-handed” management style whilst criticising him for failing to show “what most experienced backbenchers would recognise as true or inspiring leadership.” The accusations of heavy-handness are not new, with the prime minister being criticised by some for unnecessarily removing the Labour whip from six MPs who voted to remove the two-child benefit cap , a vote Labour won convincingly anyway. He was also criticised after hastily suspending a Labour candidate during the general election for plac.