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This morning, we have all now resigned from the Labour Party. This has been a very difficult, painful, but necessary decision.
From today, we will all sit in parliament as a new independent group of MPs.
The leadership has willfully and repeatedly failed to address hatred against Jewish people within its ranks. And it is for these reasons and many more that I have made this decision today. I am leaving behind a culture of bullying, bigotry, and intimidation. I look forward to a future serving with colleagues who respect each other and who are committed to working together for our great country.
We've all been Labour members of parliament for very many years, in my case, more than three decades. But the Labour party we joined, that we campaigned for and believed in is no longer today's Labour party. We did everything we could to save it, but it has now been hijacked by the machine politics of the hard left.
But British politics is now well and truly broken. And in all conscience, we can no longer knock on doors and support a government led by Jeremy Corbyn or the team around him.
So we have no choice but to say collectively, enough is enough. There has to be a better way forward, and there can be a better way forward.
