Starmer’s Labor on greed and power

Rosie Duffield told the BBC that Sir Keir Starmer’s team are “more concerned about greed and power than about making change” in her first television interview since quitting the Labor Party.

In her letter of resignation published by the Sunday Times, the Canterbury MP slams the Prime Minister for accepting gifts worth tens of thousands of pounds while waiving the winter fuel surcharge and maintaining a two-child benefit cap.

In an interview with Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, Duffield said Labor voters and MPs were being “exploited” and “taken for granted”.

Duffield, who will now sit as an independent MP, said leaving the party was “not what I wanted at all”.

Speaking to the BBC, Duffield said Labor was “in my heart and soul”.

“For me, as a Labor voter and activist, it is incredibly disappointing… to see what we have become,” she added.

After several days of reports about the donations and the leadership’s refusal to apologize, she said the leadership seemed “more about greed and power than about making change… I just can’t take it anymore.”

Duffield, who had previously clashed with the party’s leadership over women’s rights, resigned on Saturday.

She said: “We all believed in Keir Starmer and the Labor government and I feel that voters, activists and MPs are being completely ridiculed and completely taken for granted.”

Resignation letter

In her letter, she said the “revelations” since the change of government in July had been “astonishing and increasingly outrageous”.

“I cannot put into words how angry my colleagues and I are at your complete lack of understanding of how you have portrayed us all.”

Duffield, first elected in 2017, decided to leave the party after the suspension of seven other Labor MPs who rebelled over the King’s Speech by voting in favor of a motion calling for the abolition of the two-child benefit cap.

The total number of independent MPs in Parliament is currently 14.

In her letter, Duffield stated that she intended to serve as an independent MP “guided by my core Labor Party values”.

Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg he was disappointed but not surprised by Duffield’s departure from the Labor Party.

“I think she has been disappointed with the party leader and the party more broadly for a long time.

“I don’t think anything like this has developed in the last few months,” he said.

In July, the government announced that winter fuel payments for retirees would now only be paid to people on low incomes who receive certain benefits, sparking outrage from MPs and campaigners.

It has faced criticism – internal and external – over its decision to test payments on a means-tested basis, with the Unite union winning a non-binding vote at the party conference last week. But ministers argue that “difficult decisions” had to be made because of “undisclosed” overspending by the previous Tory government.

The Prime Minister came under fire when it initially emerged that he had received more than £16,000 for himself in work clothes and glasses, as well as further donations to his wife from Labor MP Waheed Alli.

Sir Keir also defended himself against accepting £20,000 of accommodation from Lord Alli for the duration of the election campaign so that his son could sit his GCSEs without utilities away from home.

McFadden defended Lord Alli’s donations and said the government would make changes to the ministerial code so ministers would have to declare any hospitality in the same way backbench MPs and shadow ministers currently have to do.

In her resignation letter, Duffield continued: “The dishonesty, nepotism and apparent greed are off the charts. “I am very ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party.”

She added: “Someone of significantly above-average wealth chooses to maintain the Conservatives’ two-child limit on benefits, pushing children further into poverty, while inexplicably accepting expensive personal gifts of designer suits and glasses that cost more than most of these people able to understand – this is completely undeserving of the title of Labor Prime Minister.”

Duffield and Sir Keir’s relationship has long been strained.

However, the fact that she decided to take over as prime minister so quickly and with such bitter criticism of him is a surprise and certainly harmful to the prime minister.

Her letter is not preceded by any subtleties that sometimes accompany such trips. Instead, it deliberately and publicly cuts him, his leadership, his policies and his behavior.

Those around Sir Keir were surely hoping that the criticism over donations would die down and that his Downing Street could move on and focus on “delivery”.

Duffield’s letter has re-emerged the issue and concern among Labor MPs over means testing over the winter fuel allowance.

It gave ammunition to Sir Keir’s critics. Conservatives will no doubt quote them liberally at their party conference this week.

In her letter, Duffield also criticized the Prime Minister for promoting people “without proven political skills” and claimed that he was “immediately elevated to a position in the shadow government, without following the usual path of honing his political skills on the backbench”.

Sir Keir was given a shadow cabinet position in 2015, just two months into his term as an MP, and in 2024 he appointed several newly elected MPs to junior ministerial positions.

One of them, Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer, is the son of Lord Falconer, Sir Keir’s first shadow attorney general, while Liam Conlon, son of No 10 chief of staff Sue Gray, became a parliamentary adviser at the Department for Transport.

Duffield’s relationship with senior party figures has been particularly strained due to her views on transgender issues, for which she has used social media to make her own position known.

She believes there should be protected spaces that people born male are not allowed to enter, such as domestic violence shelters and prisons, and is opposed to people being able to identify as transgender in order to access these spaces.

Sir Keir’s differences came to light again during this year’s general election campaign when he was asked about his previous criticism of her stance on transgender issues.

The party previously placed her under investigation after she liked a tweet from comedy writer Graham Linehan.

In January 2024, she stated that the party’s National Executive Committee had “completely acquitted her” of charges of anti-Semitism and transphobia.

In response to Duffield’s resignation, Nadia Whittome, Labor 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, Labor MP for Stroud, said he was “truly sorry” the party had lost her.

“Even though I don’t share all of her policies, I know that by working together we can do anything.”

Tom Tugendhat, a Tory leadership challenger, said Duffield had “made her opinion very clear… Labor and Keir Starmer’s government are not focused on service. It’s not about delivering benefits to the British people. It’s about self-service.”

Asked by the BBC whether Duffield would be welcomed into the Conservative Party, Tugendhat said: “It’s really a decision for her… but I strongly suspect she won’t ask about it.”

Another Tory leadership contender, James Cleverly, who like Tugendhat is in Birmingham for the Conservative Party conference, told the BBC: “She said everything.”

Tory leadership rival Robert Jenrick declined to comment.