Oh no Rosie

[InandOutlander]

I'm so sad to see her go, she was the shining light within the Labour camp.

At least this morning news bulletin (8am R4) said she stood for women's rights, last night it was she disagreed with Keir on Trans rights.

Kellie-Jay nails it

Oh give her a break. If you have followed the lead up to this story then it’s quite obvious women’s rights and safeguarding are a huge part of it- Rosie Duffield has stood up alone for that for years. It’s wrong to paint this letter as any kind of a sell out. It’s the opposite.

To stay in Parliament (where most of us would want her to stay as an independent), she can’t risk being shot down in future as a one trick pony single issue women’s rights campaigner. It’s a bit politically naive to expect her to do otherwise. She’s handling this fine and will be a good Independent MP.

I agree. And witless Whittome, the media etc are all choosing to believe that it was part of her decision anyway. It was always going to be levelled at her. It sounds like she's just thoroughly disillusioned with the current Labour Party.

I just read her resignation letter, which was printed in full in The Times. Blimey! An utterly brutal assessment of Starmer and his leadership. A fine, principled woman. I wish more MPs were like her and really stood up for their constituents and their own personal beliefs, rather than contorting themselves to support a party that no longer represents either.

I doubt very much she'll be the last, not that Labour has many people with principles left.

Her comments in the Times Radio video suggest she doesn’t expect to be the last.

Is that word for word?

Because that is a big paragraph from the BBC.

They normally hide behind 'trans women' not born male.

That's an absolutely cracking interview. She's spot-on about the way Keir Starmer has handled the freebies accusations — not at all contrite but entitled and angry.

Rosie is a lightning rod for transmitting to Labour HQ what people in the street are thinking and saying. Why they ignore her and don't use her, I don't know.

There was total bewilderment at my Labour CLP meeting last week that anyone in a Labour government would have dreamed it was acceptable to take money for clothes or tickets or holidays from people wishing to have influence. The lack of integrity is appalling. The fact that Sue Gray arranged for Lord Alli to have his own key to Downing Street came up a couple of times in the discussion. There is a horrified realisation among the members of my constituency party that they thought they were voting for our excellent MP and instead they've ended up with a load of unknown, unelected people calling the shots and a prime minister who seems incapable of understanding how taking £100k of gifts looks to the vast majority of the electorate.

I'm aware of a couple of Labour politicians, not exactly household names but reliable established MPs, who were offered positions in July that would have prevented them from speaking out against their own government. They rejected the offers and I'll be waiting to see what they now have to say. I'm wondering if there is a wider, more organised rebellion going on and Rosie is just the tip of the iceberg.

How interesting. Rosie Duffield did say that she wasn't aware of any other planned exits, so that tends to suggest no co-ordinated action - or none that she is part of.

Refreshing to hear about the MPs who put retaining their freedom to criticise above personal advancement.

I imagine there are some in the party who've never liked Keir, but haven't had enough ammo to force him out. If so, they'll be smelling blood right now and, I'd imagine, will be mobilising behind the scenes.

wtf is wrong with Nadia Whittome?
She's getting a really really hard time below her stupid tweet. Nobody supports this crazy stuff.

I'm just so fucking fed up with Labour and all the lefty misogynists.

So angry.

People with principles don't stand on a Labour ticket, already knowing the vast majority of the issues with Labour that she details in her letter, then resign the the whip three months later when she has secured the perks of being an MP for the next 5 years.

If she wants to moan about politicians accepting valuable gifts and how her constituency value an 'independent-minded MP' then perhaps she should wonder why she stood as a Labour MP instead of an independent one. Was she lying when she stood on a Labour manifesto and campaigned for a Labour government? Was it purely out of self-interest that she stood for them, then almost immediately stood down?

If she was outraged by the two child benefit cap being kept, why did she abstain from the vote on it?

This all smacks of politics rather than principles.

😂😂 are you on glue?!?!

Briliant timing! She managed to land one on Starmer - and on her own terms.

There was an Interview, with Pat Macfadden, on the Laura Kuenssberg show this morning - in which he effectively dismissed Rosie's departure as inevitable.
The reasons for the longer term fracture in relations with Rosie were not mentioned at all......

.....but it needs to be said that Lord Ali's donations to Labour MPs are quite clearly not entirely without strings. Much of the frostiness, the lack of support and the negative campaigning by her own side were down to the fact her support of women's sex based protections is contrary to Stonewall's policy on 'trans rights'. And Stonewall, of course, has regularly lauded Ali as an ally, as well as people such as Angela Eagle, Michale Cashman, Dawn Butler.

Good! Though I doubt she’s really taking it on board 🙄

How is it principled to stand for election as a Labour MP and then three months later say you're done with Labour while retaining the right to be an MP for the next 5 years, with all the associated benefits?

If she has principles, she will call a by-election and stand on her own merits, not a Labour manifesto. She says that her constituency voted for her independent-mindedness, so she presumably trusts them to re-elect her?

Quite! Corbyn aligned himself with Hezbollah and Hamas and many other terrrorist organisations and dictatorial governments around the world.

The thing is - Rosie alludes to this in the interview - Starmer doesn't engage with backbenchers. He never has. That's dangerous for a leader. I know the PM has a busy schedule, but if Mrs Thatcher used to visit the tearooms to take the temperature, so can he.

I think it's widely known at this point that there's a charmed circle at the top of the party, and he has minimal contact with anyone outside that circle. That's what's undermining him. If he had a few backbenchers around for lunch once a week, they could tell him that the PM having a sugar daddy is a bad look.

But I don't think he wants to. I don't exactly blame him for being arrogant, because I think most people at the top of politics are to some extent, but he doesn't seem to have any soft skills.

It's true that there are a bunch of Labour MPs who've lost the whip and are currently sitting as independents, but they're all Corbyn people. They've been painted as marginal, and in many ways they are. Starmer's people could try to paint Rosie as marginal, but on most issues she's dead centre in the party, and on women's rights and safeguarding she's in touch with public opinion and they're not.

I don't think there are many people in the PLP specifically loyal to Starmer. The right supported him as a hammer against the hard left. The soft left supported him because they thought he was a winner. Rayner, God help us, doesn't even bother to hide her view that she'd be a much better leader.

I suppose a lot depends on how the new intake break. We know very little about them, except for the nepo babies who were given jobs on day one.

I'm not a Labour supporter, I don't mind Rosie Duffield and I think Labour treated her appallingly, but I do think she has cheated her constituency out of a fair election. All the gushing posts about how principled she is don't really wash when you consider she could have taken this stand a few months ago. Accepting expensive gifts? She accepted a 5 year job.

Giraffe, are you suggesting that, before the election, it was common knowledge that Starmer et al were taking tens of thousands of pounds worth of ‘donations’?!

Yeh we dodged danger there

I am suggesting that the vast majority of issues that she details in her letter as 'last straws' were known before the election.

Does anyone genuinely think that Duffield was perfectly happy with Labour until the expensive glasses story came out?

Did no one ever think before this 'she should leave the Labour Party'?

Everyone knew she had massive issues with Labour. Her quitting isn't a surprise to anyone. The timing of it stinks.