The former Labour MP Rosie Duffield has said Keir Starmer has “a problem with women” and that the government was “more interested in greed and power” than making changes to the country.
In a broadside at Starmer’s leadership, Duffield told the BBC she was Labour “in my heart and soul” but said the scandal over senior party figures’ acceptance of donations and gifts including clothes was indefensible given the party was keeping the two child benefit cap and had cut the winter fuel allowance for all but the poorest pensioners.
Duffield had previously abstained on votes to cut the winter fuel payment and on an amendment to end the two-child benefit cap.
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Speaking a day after quitting the party to sit as an independent, Duffield said: “Most of us refer to the men that surround him, the young men, as ‘the lads’ and it’s very clear that the lads are in charge.
“They have now got their Downing Street passes, they are the same lads who were briefing against me in the papers and other prominent female MPs and I was really hoping for better but it wasn’t to be.”
The chancellor of the duchy of lancaster, Pat McFadden, said that he was not surprised that Duffield had quit in less than three months after being re-elected, saying she had clashed multiple times with the party leadership.
“I think you can see she has been disillusioned with the party leader, maybe the party more generally, for quite a long time. I don’t think this is something that just developed in the last few months,” he told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, adding: “I’m disappointed to see her go. I like Rosie, but ultimately I’m not surprised at the decision that she has made.”
