Rosie Duffield’s resignation letter is a warning Keir Starmer cannot ignore

News analysis: Rosie Duffield has a long history of being a critic of Keir Starmer but her resignation letter says out loud what many Labour MPs are privately thinking

MP Rosie Duffield has resigned the Labour whip. (Kirsty O’Connor/PA) (PA Archive)

A bit like the little boy in the old fairytale of the Emperor's new clothes who points out the ruler is naked, sometimes someone says what everyone else is thinking but is too scared to express.

Rosie Duffield’s castigating letter to Sir Keir Starmer certainly falls into this category as she surgically dismembered a dreadful first 10 weeks in government for this new Labour government with almost brutal glee.

Critics of the Canterbury MP - and there are many - will point out that she has been an outlier in the party for several years now. Sitting on its fringes after her attacks on trans rights and support for figures like J.K. Rowling made her a heroine to some and a bigoted villain to others. Starmer was always in the latter camp on that debate.

There were constant rumours that Duffield might switch to the Tories. Certainly she was wooed but she never did and it was always dismissed as another attempt to poison her reputation. In her resignation letter she emphasises her union roots, her belief in social democratic politics and questions whether Starmer himself is more akin to Tory thinking.

MP Rosie Duffield has resigned the Labour whip. (Kirsty O’Connor/PA) (PA Archive)

It is absolutely fair to say that when she ran for Labour in July, she did so not exactly as a supporter of Starmer or what he stands for.

However, anyone who feels the need to pile into Duffield now because they want to defend Starmer should ask themselves this question: What would I say if this was a Tory MP resigning the whip because of the actions of a Tory government? If you did not demand Natalie Elphicke stood down immediately for a by-election then you should probably hold your peace with Duffield.

Even taking all into account the history of animosity, Duffield's scorching attack says out loud what many Labour MPs are saying in dark corners in hushed tones.

You can feel “the relief” she craves from the tortuous months she has had in Labour under Jeremy Corbyn and Starmer’s leadership as sentence by sentence she pours out her pent up fury and frustration at the state of the party and this new government.

Anybody who attended the largely soulless and certainly cheerless Labour Party conference in Liverpool last week will know full well that her qualms and disappointment is shared by many in the Labour movement.

There are two strands to her attack which will really hurt Starmer though - the personal one which exposes a void of political experience and belief; and the greater issue of what seem to be unjust policies contrasting with gift taking.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (Leon Neal/PA) (PA Wire)

On the first, Duffield quickly goes for Starmer’s throat.

She notes: “As someone elevated immediately to a shadow cabinet position without following the usual path of honing your political skills on the backbenches, you had very little previous political footprint. It was therefore unclear what your political passions, drive or direction might be as the leader of the Labour Party, a large movement of people united by a desire for social justice and support for those most in need.”

His apparent lack of philosophy fits in with a man who “made the choice not to speak up once about the Labour Party's problems with antisemitism during your time in the shadow cabinet.”

Then on his lack of inspiring leadership skills she adds: “Since you took office as Leader of the Opposition you have used various heavy-handed management tactics but have never shown what most experienced backbenchers would recognise as true or inspiring leadership.”

For someone often portrayed by her critics as too rightwing for Labour it is interesting that she singles out the “shameful treatment” of Diane Abbott by Starmer and his inner circle.

She also makes clear what many despairing Labour MPs have admitted behind the scenes in private conversations on the issues of taking expensive gifts.

“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.

“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.”

But it is the “cruel and unnecessary” policies which really irks her. Interestingly the trans and women’s rights issues do not make an appearance even though that is what sent her to Labour purgatory.

Instead it is the cancellation of winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners and refusal to ease child poverty by lifting the two child benefit cap which she, like many others, is enraged by.

But when these policies are taken in the context of a prime minister and senior ministerial team taking expensive gifts of clothes, designer glasses, luxury apartments, football tickets and Taylor Swift concerts it becomes too much.

Most damningly she states: “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.”

Duffield may be an embittered critic of Starmer’s but the problem with this letter is that it is not landing in a void. It is being added to a cauldron of criticism and doubts about this new prime minister.

Worse still over the last few days the whispers which dogged Rishi Sunak’s calamitous premiership have begun. Can Starmer survive? Will he be replaced? Who could be the next Labour prime minister? These questions are being asked because his position is coming into question.

It is certainly not too late for Starmer to turn this around. He has only just won power and has a huge majority. But he has to take a grip of his government’s agenda and wipe away the sleaze quickly. If he does that Duffield’s letter will be forgotten, but if he fails it will stand as a reference point for his growing number of critics and a testament to a government that has failed to grasp the moment.