Labour MP resigns, calls Starmer’s policies ‘cruel’

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has suffered his first setback since taking charge at 10 Downing Street in July after one of his members of Parliament resigned from the Labour Party, delivering a scathing attack on his leadership.

Rosie Duffield, MP for Canterbury in Kent, will now sit in the House of Commons as an Independent after her resignation letter published in The Sunday Times attacked the Labour leader’s “cruel and unnecessary” policies amid an ongoing expensive free gifts row.

Rosie Duffield claimed there were many “last straws” that led to her decision to resign, but her main reason to step down this weekend is over the government’s programme of unpopular policies.

“They are cruel and unnecessary and affect hundreds of thousands of our poorest, most vulnerable constituents. This is not what I was elected to do. It is not even wise politics, and it certainly is not ‘the politics of service’,” wrote Duffield in her resignation letter. The resignation follows revelations around Starmer having received £ 107,145 in gifts, benefits, and hospitality, a specific category in the UK Parliament’s register of MPs’ interests.

‘Subject India to tougher visa norms’

• Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, a Tory leader race frontrunner, on Sunday singled out India as one of the countries that should be subjected to tough visa restrictions across all categories unless it takes back its nationals who enter Britain illegally
• His closest contender, shadow housing secretary Kemi Badenoch, has also zeroed in on the same issue, and condemned new migrants bringing their disputes from India to cause unrest on the streets of the country