UK lawmaker quits Labour Party over PM’s ‘hypocrisy’

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer attends a breakfast meeting with business leaders at the consul general’s residence on the sidelines of the 79th United Nations General Assembly on September 26, 2024, in New York. Agence France-Presse

LONDON — The new government of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer reeled from its first resignation Saturday, as lawmaker Rosie Duffield quit the Labour Party, accusing him of “hypocrisy” over his acceptance of free gifts.

In a blistering resignation letter, Duffield denounced Starmer for pursuing “cruel and unnecessary” policies.

“The sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice are off the scale,” she wrote, after it emerged earlier this month that Starmer had accepted more than £100,000 in gifts and hospitality while cutting an annual £300 winter heating payment to some 10 million pensioners.

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“I am so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party.”

Duffield said the “hypocrisy” of a leader enjoying expensive free clothing and outings while asking others to tighten their belts was “staggering”.

She also attacked the prime minister’s decision to maintain a cap on a benefit aimed at supporting families with children.

“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,” she wrote.

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Duffield said that she would in the future sit as an independent MP “guided by my core Labour values”.

The row over the free gifts from rich donors had already cast a shadow over the party’s first conference since they returned to government.

Labour ousted the Conservatives in a landslide election win in July after 14 years in opposition.

But instead of toasting their victory at the conference earlier this week, ministers found themselves on the backfoot and facing anger from the normally supportive unions.

Financial ‘black hole’

All of the gifts accepted by Starmer had been declared and none fall foul of parliamentary rules.

But records show that Starmer accepted more than £100,000 ($132,000) in gifts and hospitality since December 2019, more than any other lawmaker.

It also emerged that Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner accepted the loan of a New York apartment for a holiday and that Chancellor Rachel Reeves accepted around £7,500 worth of clothing.

Reeves and the Labour party have defended the abolition of the £300 payment to many pensioners to help them heat their homes, citing a need to fill a “£22 billion black hole” they say was left by the Conservatives.

Attacking Starmer’s “managerial and technocratic approach” in her letter, first reported in The Sunday Times, Duffield also reproached Starmer for poor politics.

His “lack of basic… political instincts” had “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”.

Starmer lost a symbolic vote at the conference demanding that he reverse the contentious policy.

The vote was non-binding but its outcome was nonetheless embarrassing for the premier.

It highlighted the strength of feeling among activists and union backers.

Delegates narrowly backed a union motion calling for the cut to be reversed.

“I do not understand how our new Labour Government can cut the winter fuel allowance for pensioners and leave the super rich untouched,” said the Unite union general secretary Sharon Graham.