Labour fiasco as Field vows to fight his seat

He is one of the Commons’ most venerable and venerated figures, and today i can reveal that Frank Field will — after much agonising — run as an independent in the next election.

Field, 76, who is acknowledged on both sides of the House as a fair-minded and dogged campaigner on social issues such as low pay, tells me: ‘i have decided to fight the seat at the next election against the Labour candidate. i’m sorry it’s come to this.’

Left- wing agitators in his Birkenhead constituency last year passed a vote of no confidence in him for siding with the Government in key Brexit votes. After he resigned the whip, Labour’s National executive Committee rescinded his party membership.

it was shabby treatment for a man who had served as an MP with distinction for nearly 40 years — from long before many of his Corbynista critics were born. Meanwhile, attempts to find his replacement have descended into farce. A recent meeting at Birkenhead Town Hall to select a candidate had to be abandoned after a council employee forgot the keys.

An alternative venue was swiftly arranged — but on arrival the organisers realised that the ‘mission statements’ from their aspiring candidates were still locked in the town hall.

Field, who commands a majority of 26,000, says: ‘it seems chaos isn’t confined to Brexit.’