Labour freebies meltdown as Keir Starmer’s personal ratings slump AGAIN: Allies try to shrug off ‘squalls’ as conference fails to boost PM with MP QUITTING party in protest and Cabinet unrest mounting
Keir Starmer‘s freebies meltdown gather pace today as an MP quit in protest and a poll showed his ratings continuing to plummet.
The PM’s allies tried to shrug of ‘squalls’ engulfing the government after Rosie Duffield dramatically resigned the party whip condemning a culture of sleaze.
Meanwhile, Opinium research showed Sir Keir received no bounce from the Labour conference in Liverpool last week – with his favourability slumping again.
He now has a net score of minus 30 – his worst ever and down from minus 26 a week ago.
The grim picture comes after weeks of revelations about free clothes, spectacles, football ticket, concerts and even accommodation accepted by Labour frontbenchers from donors.
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Keir Starmer ‘s freebies meltdown gather pace today as an MP quit in protest and a poll showed his ratings continuing to plummet
Sir Keir has been fielding questions about his use of a donor’s £18million penthouse for political purposes (pictured, a TV response to Covid regulations in 2021)
The PM’s allies tried to shrug of ‘squalls’ engulfing the government after Rosie Duffield dramatically resigned the party whip condemning a culture of sleaze
In an explosive resignation letter to Sir Keir, Ms Duffield criticised his ‘cruel and unnecessary policies’ including the decision to keep the two-child benefit cap and means-test the winter fuel payment.
And she accused the PM of ‘hypocrisy’ over his acceptance of free gifts from donors.
Ms Duffield blasted Sir Keir for throwing the electorate’s ‘sacred and precious trust’ in its face ‘and in the faces of Labour MPs’.
The Canterbury MP – who has clashed with Sir Keir over trans rights in the past – slammed ‘heavy-handed management tactics’, adding he had shown neither ‘true nor inspiring leadership’.
Sir Keir has been left struggling to contain a trans row after one of his backbenchers, Nadia Whittome, waded in to say Ms Duffield should already have been kicked out of the party for her views on gender.
That in turn sparked JK Rowling to intervene supporting Ms Duffield and demanding critics ‘keep her name out of your mouth’.
In the letter published by the Sunday Times Ms Duffield said: ‘Since the change of government in July, the revelations of hypocrisy have been staggering and increasingly outrageous.
‘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.’
She added: ‘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.’
Speaking to the BBC in an interview for the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Ms Duffield said the party was ‘in my heart and in my soul’, but she has lost her ‘faith’ in the leadership.
Rosie Duffield’s full resignation letter to Sir Keir Starmer
‘We all had our faith in Keir Starmer and a Labour government, and I feel that voters and activists and MPs are being completely laughed at and completely taken for granted,’ she said.
‘It is so profoundly disappointing to me as a Labour voter and an activist… to see this is what we have become.’
She also told the broadcaster the party leadership seemed ‘more about greed and power than making a difference’, adding: ‘I just can’t take any more.’
Cabinet minister Pat McFadden was sent out to broadcast studios this morning to field questions, acknowledging that Labour was being beset by ‘squalls’ but arguing the government’s direction was unchanged.
