Labour MP quits over ‘freebies’ scandal and Keir Starmer’s ‘cruel policies’

A Labour MP has quit the party over the freebies scandal, accusing Sir Keir Starmer of presiding over “sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice” that is “off the scale”.

Resigning her position, Rosie Duffield, the MP for Canterbury, told Sir Keir that she was “ashamed” of what he and his “inner circle” had done to “tarnish and humiliate our once proud party”.

She declared that he was unfit for office after “inexplicably” choosing to accept designer suits while at the same time pursuing “cruel and unnecessary” policies.

The dramatic resignation sent Downing Street into turmoil on Saturday night and came as Sir Keir faced mounting pressure from within his own party to get a grip on the donations crisis.

In her resignation letter to the Prime Minister, Ms Duffield 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.

“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?”

Ms Duffield, 53, has been a consistent critic of the party over its approach to transgender issues and has not attended previous party conferences over the issue.

She has become the fastest MP to jump ship after a general election in modern political history.

It came after Sir Keir admitted on Friday that Lord Alli gave him £32,000 to pay for clothing, double what he previously declared.

Sir Keir also received £2,400 from Lord Alli for glasses, and the use of an £18 million penthouse during the election campaign and on other occasions. Members of his frontbench team have also declared large donations from the peer.

On Saturday night, a frontbench source warned that Downing Street needed to change course, saying “it is getting to the point where it might be terminal”.

“If you are constantly explaining, you are losing. It looks like you are doing something dodgy,” they told The Telegraph. “Keir needs to be absolutely straight and he needs to draw a line under it.”

A growing number of Labour MPs as well as members of Sir Keir’s own Cabinet are understood to be frustrated by the row, with one complaining that ministers need to be more “political”.

Cabinet ministers who have not already been swept up in the ongoing freebies saga are seeking to distance themselves from it by emphasising privately how modestly they dress and how little they care about designer clothes.

Some members of the Rose Network, Labour’s club for donors, are said to be uneasy about the direction of travel No10 is taking, with one long-standing donor calling the decision by Sir Keir to accept so many designer clothes as donations “completely obscene”.

Members of Labour’s powerful ruling body, the National Executive Committee (NEC), are also angry about the party’s handling of the row.

Mish Rahman, an NEC member, said that Labour’s first conference since winning the election “should have been jubilation and celebration, instead it was mired by talk of spending cuts and questionable donations”. He added: “The honeymoon is over in record time and unease is spreading.”

A second NEC member told The Telegraph that the apparent “scramble for freebies” was “pretty embarrassing”.

“We have been waiting to get into power for so long but it feels like the minute we do there is a scramble for freebies,” they said. “The strategy around it has been so poor – they haven’t been able to get a handle on it.”

Other ministers are worried about the negative rhetoric coming from Downing Street and the Treasury, particularly in the run up to the Budget on Oct 30. “The Budget will be painful,” one minister said. “But we can’t have this doom and gloom forever.”

Meanwhile, tensions with Sue Gray, Sir Keir’s chief of staff, remain, and Government aides are locked in negotiations with Downing Street over their salaries, with many being offered a pay cut compared to what they were earning in opposition.

Several special advisers are now threatening to quit, with one source pointing out that the job of being in government is far harder than they imagined, and saying they can earn much more money in the private sector.

Another confirmed that some senior aides have raised the prospect of walking out, but said this was more of a negotiating tactic to try to force a higher salary.

Sir Keir said last week he would no longer accept money for clothes while in office, as did Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, and Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister.

Labour has claimed that all opposition parties invest in the presentation of candidates, including speech and media training, as well as photography and clothing.

But on Saturday, John Glen, the Shadow Paymaster General, reported Sir Keir to the parliamentary commissioner for standards and the registrar of members’ financial interests, demanding a fresh investigation.

In a letter to the standards watchdog, Mr Glen alleged that Sir Keir failed to declare who was behind the salaries of 14 of his aides in the run-up to the election and also raised questions over possible failures to declare hospitality and gifts from lobbyists.

Under Commons rules, all MPs must ensure that anyone who holds a parliamentary pass as part of their office declares who pays for their salary and any other income they receive over £450 from the same source.

But Mr Glen points out that Sir Keir’s register of interests published on May 30 does not list any source of income for 14 of his aides.

In his letter to the commissioner, Mr Glen said: “There is a clear public interest in the most senior Parliamentarians following the rules, and for proper transparency on the corporate funding of Keir Starmer’s Parliamentary Office, and in relation to any associated gifts or hospitality. This is also not the first breach of the rules by him.”

‘Lack of basic politics and political instincts’

In her resignation letter, first reported by The Sunday Times, Ms Duffield lambasted the Prime Minister’s “managerial style and technocratic approach”, saying his “lack of basic politics and political instincts have come crashing down on us as a party”.

She said the revelations of “hypocrisy” had been “staggering and increasingly outrageous”, adding: “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.”

A Labour Party source said: “This changed Labour Party won’t be taking any lectures from a Conservative Party that has – for year after year – specialised in scandal, sleaze and corruption.

“With Keir Starmer’s leadership, this Government is more transparent than ever, and is getting on with the job of delivering the change the country voted for on July 4.”