Labour MP quits over ‘unfit to lead’ Corbyn

DAME LOUISE ELLMAN has quit the Labour Party after 55 years as a member as she said Jeremy Corbyn was “not fit to serve as our prime minister”.

The veteran MP, 73, said that under Mr Corbyn’s leadership, “anti-semitism has become mainstream in the Labour Party, Jewish members have been bullied, abused and driven out”.

Dame Louise has served as the MP for Liverpool Riverside since 1997.

She wrote in a letter to the party last night: “I have this evening resigned from the Labour Party. I have been a member for 55 years and a public representative in local and central government continuously since 1970. My decision has been truly agonising, as it has been for the thousands of other party members who have already left.”

She ruled out joining another party and said she hopes to return to Labour “under different leadership”.

She wrote: “I believe that Jeremy Corbyn is not fit to serve as our prime minister. With a looming general election and the possibility of him becoming prime minister, I feel I have to take a stand. I cannot advocate a government led by Jeremy Corbyn. A party that permits anti-jewish racism to flourish cannot be called anti-racist.”

Dame Louise told The Times that a Corbyn-led government was a “possibility”, which meant she had to “face taking a decision”. She wrote that Labour was “no longer a safe place for Jews and Jeremy Corbyn must bear the responsibility for this. We cannot allow him to do to the country what he has done to the Labour Party”. She accused him of presiding over a “culture of hatred, fear and intolerance in the party”.

A Labour Party spokesman said Mr Corbyn thanked Dame Louise for her service, adding: “Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party are fully committed to the support, defence and celebration of the Jewish community and continue to take robust action to root out anti-semitism in the party and wider society.”