Rosie Duffield quits as Labour MP and blasts Keir Starmer

Rosie Duffield has resigned as a Labour MP, saying she is leaving the party over prime minister Keir Starmer’s “hypocrisy” regarding donations and government policy decisions.

Duffield, who has represented Canterbury since 2017, announced she is leaving the party in a resignation letter published by the Sunday Times on Saturday (28 September), in which she called out the thousands of pounds worth of gifts Starmer has controversially received whilst at the same time scrapping the winter fuel payment and keeping the two-child benefit cap.

The now-independent MP, 53, wrote that several “last straws” led to the decision but that her reason for leaving now was down to “the programme of policies you seem determined to stick to, however unpopular they are with the electorate and your own MPs”.

She said policies under Starmer’s government were “cruel and unnecessary” – impacting the most vulnerable in society – and since Labour won the general election in July the “revelations of hypocrisy” have been “staggering and increasingly outrageous”

She wrote: “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.”

“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.

“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 or remorse?”

Duffield went on to say that she will “guided by [her] core Labour values” whilst sitting as an independent MP and concluded that she hopes to rejoin Labour when it “again resembles the party I love”.

Duffield is well-known for her ‘gender-critical’ views, she has previously called trans women “male-bodied biological men”, criticised gender-inclusive language, opposed the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill and stated trans women should not have access to single-sex spaces including changing rooms, toilets, and domestic violence shelters. 

Rosie Duffield’s comments about the transgender community have been condemned by members of her own party. Several groups within Labour, such as LGBT+ Labour and Labour Students, previously called on the party to remove the whip from Duffield prior to her resignation over comments she made about Suzy Eddie Izzard.

Separately, the politician was cleared of allegations of transphobia and antisemitism by her party in January this year, saying she had been “completely exonerated”. It came after The Sunday Times reported that Duffield had been placed under investigation by Labour when she liked a post from comedy writer-turned-anti trans pundit Graham Linehan on X/Twitter.