A SENIOR Labour MP dramatically quit the shadow cabinet tonight with a furious attack on Sir Keir Starmer for breaking key promises and tearing the party apart.
Shadow Employment Secretary Andy McDonald plunged the party’s annual conference in Brighton into crisis with a shock resignation.
The Labour leftie claims Sir Keir’s team ordered him to argue against a £15 minimum wage and Statutory Sick Pay.
He said the demands made his position “untenable” and fired a blistering parting shot at the embattled leader.
In a stinging letter he said: “After eighteen months of your leadership, our movement is more divided than ever and the pledges you made to the membership are not being honoured. This is just the latest of many.”
This latest bout of infighting – that has dogged the party for years – risks overshadowing the rest of the party’s annual conference which was billed as a reset moment for Sir Keir’s embattled time in charge.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves – who learnt of the resignation live at a party fringe event – said: “I’d like to pay tribute to the work that he has done with Angela Rayner on workplace rights that were announced at conference on Sunday.”
Mr McDonald was a key Corbyn lieutenant and is associated with the party’s left.
He fumed: “After many months of a pandemic when we made commitments to stand by key workers, I cannot now look those same workers in the eye and tell them they are not worth a wage that is enough to live on, or that they don’t deserve security when they are ill.”
He added: “I joined your frontbench team on the basis of the pledges that you made in the leadership campaign to bring about unity within the party and maintain our commitment to socialist policies.”
