All is not well in the Labour party. Not only is Sir Keir still dealing with the freebie fiasco, Starmer also lost a longtime MP last week after she quit the party. Rosie Duffield left Labour with a bang, penning a scathingletter that blasted the ‘sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice’ existing among the lefty lot, telling the Prime Minister: ‘I am so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party.’ Shots fired…
And now renowned writer JK Rowling has waded into the matter. Duffield’s resignation letter received immense backlash from her former colleagues – many of whom, alongside Starmer, have taken issue with her stance on women’s rights – with Labour’s Nadia Whittome even tweeting that the gender critical politician had ‘made a political career out of dehumanising one of the most marginalised groups in society…Labour should have withdrawn the whip long ago’. No love lost there, eh? But now Whittome is getting a taste of her own medicine, with the Harry Potter author quick to publicly swoop to Duffield’s defence:
Rosie Duffield was one of the few female Labour politicians with the guts to stand up for vulnerable women and girls, while self-satisfied numbskulls like you fought to give away their rights and spaces. TL;DR Keep her name out of your mouth.
Ouch. That’s her told…
Duffield has made no secret of her frustration at the direction of the Labour party under Starmer – and his lack of support for her and her views – and has even slammed the PM for having a women problem. The Canterbury MP fumed on LBC:
Most backbenchers I’m friends with are women and most of us refer to the men that surround him, the young men, as ‘the lads’ and it’s very clear that the lads are in charge. They have now got their Downing Street passes. They are the same lads who were briefing against me in the papers and other prominent female MPs and I was really hoping for better but it wasn’t to be.
Yikes. With reports of feuding between Starmer’s chief of staff Sue Gray and his top team, Duffield’s latest intervention is hardly likely to calm tensions. Not even three months have passed since the election, and Sir Keir already has his work cut out repairing party relations. Talk about a short honeymoon…
