A LABOUR MP quit the party today blasting Sir Keir Starmer over the freebie scandal engulfing his Cabinet.
Rosie Duffield tore into the new Prime Minister for accepting gifts worth more than £100,000 from Labour peer Lord Waaheed Alli.
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In a blistering letter to Sir Keir she also blamed his “cruel and unnecessary” policies.
“The sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice are off the scale,” she wrote.
“I am so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party.”
The Canterbury MP also attacked his decision to scrap winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners.
Adding: “Forcing a vote [on the winter fuel payment] to make many older people iller and colder while you and your favourite colleagues enjoy free family trips to events most people would have to save hard for — why are you not showing even the slightest bit of embarrassment?”
Ms Duffield said the revelations of “hypocrisy” were increasingly “outrageous”.
She said: “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.”
Sir Keir is facing calls to come to Parliament and “explain himself” over the freebies scandal.
The PM is facing fresh pressure after his team admitted he received an additional £16,000 in clothes from Lord Alli.
It had originally been registered as money for his private office.
It means in total Sir Keir received £32,000 in clothes and glasses from the Labour peer and donor.
In total, he has accepted over £100,000 in free tickets to football matches, pop concerts and designer gear since 2019.
Tory shadow Cabinet minister Victoria Atkins said: “The secrecy and hypocrisy is galling – having promised a government of transparency and integrity, the Prime Minister’s freebie-grabbing of clothes, concerts, football boxes and a prime London apartment, all smells bad.
The sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice are off the scale.
Rosie Duffield
“He must explain himself to Parliament upon our return.
“As his government slashes winter fuel payments for pensioners with incomes of just £13,000, his over £100,000 of freebies looks awful.”
It comes as this newspaper reveals the sheer scale of freebies accepted by the Labour Cabinet over the past 18 months.
They accepted over £150,000 in tickets to football, Glastonbury, hospitality at major sports events and other swanky award-dos since April 2023, according to the Register of Members Financial Interests.
Speech that sets the tone for Labour’s first chapter
By Ryan Sabey, Deputy Political Editor
Sir Keir Starmer has endured a torrid few weeks in the job he has craved.
This was a reset moment that – for an hour or so at least – he could put the troubles of freebiegate and Sue Gray’s salary behind him.
It was a greatest hits run out that will please many of those who voted for him for the first time.
Stronger borders as a priority and fixing the foundations of the economy are essential for the long-term benefit of the country.
But there may be some anger among Labour ranks when he spoke of plugging the £22billion black hole.
It won’t just fall on the shoulders of the better off in society as this is a “shared struggle”, he said.
He even said – to coin a phrase – that “we are all in it together”.
The decision to axe winter fuel allowance for millions of pensioners is just one decision he didn’t shy away from.
That brought about a few groans in the hall as ex-Tory Chancellor George Osborne echoed this phrase during the austerity years.
A crackdown on benefits and the welfare bill will be unveiled at the Budget and it won’t be pretty.
This speech was setting the tone for the first phase of this Labour government.
Short-term pain for long-term gain.
Folks, it’s time to buckle up.
