A LEFTIE Labour MP quit the shadow cabinet tonight with a furious attack on Sir Keir Starmer for breaking key promises and tearing the party apart.
Shadow Employment Secretary Andy McDonald resigned in a huff and accused the Labour leader of abandoning socialism.
3
3
The raging Corbyn ally claims Sir Keir’s team ordered him to argue against a £15 minimum wage and Statutory Sick Pay.
He said the demands made his position “untenable” and fired a blistering parting shot at the embattled leader.
In a blistering resignation letter he said: “After eighteen months of your leadership, our movement is more divided than ever and the pledges you made to the membership are not being honoured.
“This is just the latest of many.”
This latest bout of infighting – that has dogged the party for years – risks overshadowing the rest of the party’s annual conference in Brighton.
Sir Keir wanted to use his first in-person gathering since becoming leader to reset his embattled time in charge.
Tonight his team played down the rift and seemed glad to be rid of Mr McDonald.
Mr McDonald was a key Corbyn lieutenant and is associated with the hard party’s left and fumed at the abandoning of socialist policies.
Sir Keir said: “I want to thank Andy for his service in the shadow cabinet.
“Labour’s comprehensive new deal for working people shows the scale of our ambition and where our priorities lie.
“My focus and that of the whole party is on winning the next general election so we can deliver for working people who need a Labour government.”
Reacting to the breaking news at a speaking event, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves paid tribute to the work her departed colleague had done on workers rights.
Mr McDonald blasted: “After many months of a pandemic when we made commitments to stand by key workers, I cannot now look those same workers in the eye and tell them they are not worth a wage that is enough to live on, or that they don’t deserve security when they are ill.”
He added: “I joined your frontbench team on the basis of the pledges that you made in the leadership campaign to bring about unity within the party and maintain our commitment to socialist policies.”
Former union baron “Red” Len McLuskey bemoaned the loss of “the last Corbynite in the shadow cabinet”.
Earlier in the conference Sir Keir went to war with the party’s left-wing in a bid to change the party’s leadership election rules to make it harder for another Jeremy Corbyn to seize the top job.
Tory Party chair Oliver Dowden rubbed salt in the wounds, tweeting: “Now they are even resigning during their own party conference.
“Labour’s conference gets more chaotic by the minute. How can people trust them to run the country?”
3
We pay for your stories!
Do you have a story for The Sun news desk?
