Oh no Rosie

[InandOutlander]

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

Yes.

But it wouldn't have been based on that alone, would it? There was a long litany of complaints in her letter.

You know which former Labour leader wouldn't have means tested the WFA or mired the party in the sleaze of corporate and super wealthy individual donors? The one she consistently undermined.

It's laughable that she feels she can cite hypocrisy amongst her reasons. She knew what Starmer was.

I'm glad she's resigned. She has clearly been very unhappy with the party for a long time and I could never figure out why she was staying. But I guess it makes sense when you realise it's a £93k a year job.

Sad for her constituents as she will have very little influence as an independent.

Then you'll be happy with a by-election to prove this?

She will not be as influential as an independent, I hate to break it to you.

I thought they stood for Mentor of Predators.

Or perhaps Miscreant Protector.

Her party didn't listen to her at all. I doubt she's lost influence (even if she hasn't gained it either).

Generally they don't do it within weeks of their election?

Yes, possibly.

"Leaving the party is like leaving a marriage. I know Labour members whose party activity just seems to make them miserable, but I know they'll never leave"

For some people they struggle on in a bad marriage until the final straw breaks their back. I think this is what has happened here.

She's my MP and I have voted for her twice. I was happy to see her majority increased this time around. But...it's been very obvious for a long time that she's disaffected with the Labour Party and I can't help thinking it would have been more honest and appropriate if she had stood as an independent in July. As it happens, I don't think she would have won and maybe she sensed that. But that makes me a bit resentful that she got in on a Labour ticket and within 3 months has resigned.

Of course she did. Her views on gender were reported precisely because she was a Labour MP, often criticising her own party. Now its going to be irrelevant and not news worthy, so she will be ignored.

For example, how much reporting on Corbyn have you seen since he was expelled?

Yes, not sure who is going to bother with her now. I never see KJK represented in the news, she was barely mentioned in the Bristol GE coverage.

Did she even mention women's rights in her resignation letter?

Of course, when Christian Wakeford defected from Conservative to Labour in the last parliament, Rachel Reeves came on the news to sagely tell us that a by-election in these circumstances is not how our democracy works.

Wakeford seems to have done all right for himself. He's a whip these days. Both main parties in the Commons see him as an untrustworthy asshole, but he enjoys the sunny side of Dear Leader's countenance.

And yet the general election was an ideal breaking point. She had plenty of time to consider her position while deciding whether to stand, whether to stand as a Labour MP, and on the campaign trail, don't you think?

No.

It's a good point. I wonder how she squared her conscience when she was representing Labour to the voters?

Maybe that is one reason she didn't do hustings - because she knew just how much she would have to say that she disagreed with.

Presumably none of the other candidates views coincided with their views - that were those of the reform party - so they wanted one that did.

I don't know. I can see why she might have thought she should carry on trying to work from within the party. Just like many, many women in the Labour Women's Declaration decided not to leave, even though they were being bullied and silenced. It is a difficult one. I have been in a job where I worked very hard for years trying to teach students, implement and update professional practice, improve safety, until one day, one incident, one lie, just tipped the balance. I was headhunted for a much better job and I just thought enough was enough.
In Rosie's case it remains to be seen what happens next.

They wanted to vote for Nigel Farage! A tub of lard could have stood for Reform and people would have voted for it.

This was exactly what I thought.

I'm actually surprised at your vehemence @noblegiraffe as I've seen your teaching threads and generally applauded them. But many teachers leaving teaching compare it to leaving an abusive marriage and I completely understand the analogy. I think Rosie was in the same position. She just could no longer stand the abuse for the sake of the marriage / party / job / kids insert as necessary.

And to pre-empt any TRAs or Labour beardy bros - don't get pseudo 'professionally offended' by the analogy, I literally work with women experiencing domestic violence / IPV / whatever term you prefer.

Seems to me that if there was any prior calculation from RD, it was to make sure that Labour got in.
Labour did get in with a large majority. One MP more or less makes no difference. It's not even as if she has joined another party.

I have sympathy with her Labour loyalist constituents, but they got what they voted for - Rosie Duffield, MP.

But what seems to be making some people angry is that she has criticised the PM. If he didn't want to be criticised for accepting freebies, he shouldn't have accepted freebies. And then gone on to announce benefit cuts.

She explicitly said she was not resigning the whip because of the PM's stance on women's rights, but nevertheless, people who don't think women's rights are fundamentally important are indignant about that.

Effectively, even on the most cynical reading, she did what Labour supporters told other women to do - support Labour to get the Tories out, deprioritise the women's rights issues because Labour will not (for reasons) execute their TA agenda.
So what is the problem for the Labour women?

Having said all that, I don't think there was that calculation. I do believe it was the last straw - not only bad policies but bad politics, as she saw it.