VETERAN Labour MP Frank Field has said he will resign as Labour whip and will sit as an “independent Labour” MP in Parliament.
The Birkenhead MP said he was quitting over “current excuses for the party’s toleration of anti-Semitism” and called on Labour to “regain its position as being the leading force against racism in this country”.
He blasted Corbyn for failing to apologise for his past anti-Semitic “statements and actions”, adding that the leadership is “doing nothing substantive to address this erosion of our core values.”
Mr Field says in the letter that he is resigning the whip for “two principle reasons”: “The first centres on the latest example of Labour’s leadership becoming a force for anti-Semitism in British politics.
“The latest example, from last week, comes after a series of attempts by Jeremy to deny that past statements and actions by him were anti-Semitism.”
“Britain fought the Second World War to banish these views from out politics, but that superhuman effort and success is now under huge and sustained internal attack.”
“The leadership is doing nothing substantive to address this erosion of our core values. It saddens me to say that we are increasingly seen as a racist party. This issue alone compels me to sign the whip.”