Frank Field’s departure had its roots in local turmoil but his rift with the party on both Brexit and antisemitism are at the heart of the deep schism in the party nationally. “There are two backbench MPs whose names are repeated to me by northern, working-class voters, who say they are universally respected, and they are Frank Field and Dennis Skinner,” John Mann, Field’s friend and a fellow Brexiter, told the Guardian, reeling off Field’s record on tackling child poverty, low pay, universal credit and taking on Philip Green over BHS pensions. “If there is no longer a place for Frank Field in the Labour party and his values, then we are in very deep trouble in those places indeed,” Mann continued. In the wake of a crunch Brexit vote in which Eurosceptic Labour rebels like Field delivered a narrow victory for Theresa May, the MP lost a confidence vote at his local Birkenhead CLP and deselection looked a serious possibility. Relations had broken down between the MP and local members for some months and sources said he had not attended constituency meetings since March. Party sources said there had been efforts to address concerns, including investigating a councillor named by Field in his letter and removing her as a Labour candidate, though she was not disciplined further. “The issue pre-dates the motion of no confidence and the issue is not political or factional,” one source said. In his resignation letter, Field said the “failure to act on these numerous complaints about the thuggish conduct of some members demonstrates a wilful denial”. The Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, an ally of the leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said there was a limit to what could be done if relations had broken down locally. “What Frank describes is not something I recognise,” he said. “It sounds like there was local feud, the person in question was investigated and taken off the list of the Labour party. There comes a point where you say, if you’re not happy with the action that has been taken, we might have to part ways.” Some MPs called for the party to reach out to Field and try to persuade him to retake the whip. “If we are serious about being in government and making a difference to people’s lives then we will listen to Frank,” the MP Neil Coyle said. “There is still time to bring Frank back into the Labour party.” Another Labour MP, Wes Streeting, said the party faced electoral oblivion if it could not continue to be a broad church. “If these divisions are irreconcilable, the Labour party faces its biggest crisis since 1981,” he wrote in a piece for the Guardian. “A split in the party would mean another term, if not another generation, of Conservative government.” Stephen Kinnock, the MP for Aberavon, said he had watched Field’s character being attacked with utter horror. “I’ve had many disagreements with Frank over Brexit but that is not a reason to hound someone out of the party,” he said. “It is appalling to see some people engaging in character assassinations, which has happened a lot recently and is deeply regrettable.” Many more MPs were privately expressing dismay at the furious reaction to Field’s departure. “The reaction is not to say, we’ll consider those concerns, but to say, we’re expelling you,” one backbencher said. “It’s beyond belief.” Ivor Caplin, the former Hove MP and the chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, said the bitter atmosphere in the party was taking its toll, especially over antisemitism. “In some constituencies, the constant aggressive nature of some people is wearing on activists and that is not right,” he said. “One of the founding traditions of the Labour party is we are able to have different views but walk out and go for a drink afterwards, because that is what Labour is about. It is not about aggressive, nasty behaviour.” Profile Frank Field Show The veteran MP, who has resigned the Labour whip, was among those who nominated Jeremy Corbyn for the leadership in 2015, calling the other candidates 'thin post-Blair gruel' and saying the leftwinger would change the terms of the debate. Field, 79, has been MP for Birkenhead since 1979. He served as a minister under Tony Blair but is best known for his role as chair of the work and pensions select committee, taking robust positions on food banks, benefit sanctions, the gig economy and migrant workers. Most recently, his Euroscepticism has been in the spotlight, often voting against the party whip on Brexit, including recent votes where pro-Brexit Labour rebels saved Theresa May’s government from devastating defeats. Field had been facing the possible threat of deselection, and recently narrowly lost a no-confidence vote in his local party. The MP said his constituency Labour party was trying to 'misrepresent' his pro-Brexit vote. 'It would have been a betrayal of the principles I have held for my entire political life, had I voted against the legislation,' he said. After he announced he was quitting the whip, critics were quick to point to some of Field's more rightwing views; citing his comments about the need for controls on migrant workers and his admiration for Margaret Thatcher, who he said was “certainly a hero”. Field has, however, been one of the Conservative government’s fiercest critics in recent years, particularly on universal credit, which he said was forcing people into desperate poverty. Earlier this year, he told MPs about a constituent who had considered suicide because of payment delays, a speech that brought a Tory MP to tears. He was one of the first MPs to speak out about the rising use of food banks, as chair of the all-party parliamentary group on hunger, saying they were fast becoming 'an institutional part of our welfare state'. Field has also criticised the gig economy, calling it 'bogus self-employment … peddled by those who benefit so handsomely from the gig economy, to avoid the obligations they have to their workforce'. Photograph: David Rose/REX/Shutterstock/Rex Features Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback. Few Labour MPs said they believed Field’s departure would be the catalyst for a mass exodus, describing him as a lone operator who did not confide in many people that he was planning to leave. The party was quick to underline, however, that MPs who quit the whip, like Field, must also quit the party, just in case other MPs might have thought that was an option. Instead, the biggest flash point will be next week, when the party’s ruling national executive committee will meet on Tuesday to consider whether to finally adopt the four examples of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, originally omitted from the Labour code of conduct. Labour MPs will vote among themselves whether to adopt the definition into their own rulebook on Wednesday – a clear challenge to the leadership, who are keen to avoid an embarrassing showdown. “The Labour party without Frank is much weaker than with him, but I don’t see this as a moment that will shift the dial one way or the other,” one senior backbencher said. “The big thing now that colleagues are looking for is the NEC decision on the IHRA definition and the PLP vote that will follow if it doesn’t. Then it will be for the NEC to respond to that – and the truth of the matter is, that will be the big moment.” The JLM will hold its annual conference on Sunday, where Jewish MPs such as Luciana Berger and Margaret Hodge, as well as the Momentum founder Jon Lansman, are due to speak. “The only way forward for the NEC is to adopt the definition and all the examples,” Caplin said. “But until they do that, there is an impasse. This is the key issue to unlocking other discussions.” The former Labour minister said it had been a devastating summer for the party. “It is something I have learnt in my political career, that every decision you make has consequences,” he said. “And the consequences of that poor decision has meant we have had eight weeks of very damaging headlines.<doc-sep>Jeremy Corbyn has been warned that the resignation of the veteran MP Frank Field from the Labour whip, over antisemitism and what Field called a culture of nastiness in the party, must be treated as a wake-up call. In a blistering letter to Labour’s chief whip, Nick Brown, Field wrote: “It saddens me to say that we are increasingly seen as a racist party” and added that antisemitism alone would have been enough to prompt his resignation. The MP for Birkenhead, who recently faced a vote of no confidence from his local party over his support for Brexit, highlighted what he called a “culture of nastiness, bullying and intimidation”, saying this was at best ignored and at worst tacitly tolerated. Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, said Field’s move was a “serious loss”, which “reflects both the deep divisions in the party and the sense of drift engulfing us. It is a major wake-up call. We cannot afford to lose people of such weight and stature.” With a number of MPs privately frustrated, and growing rumours that several could resign to sit as independents, or even form a breakaway party, the Ilford MP Wes Streeting said that if the leadership failed to get a grip on the issue, Labour could face an existential crisis. The character assassinations of Frank Field have already begun, but the two issues he raises - antisemitism and the toxic political culture of our Party - must be addressed if we are to prevent this becoming a full-blown existential crisis for the Labour Party. — Wes Streeting MP (@wesstreeting) August 30, 2018 Field hoped to continue to be a party member and to represent Birkenhead as an independent Labour MP. However, a party source said Field would meet Brown on Friday, when he would be told he must resign his membership or be expelled from the party within 14 days. “It is not possible to resign as a Labour MP and remain a member of the Labour party,” the source said. Field’s letter said he was resigning the whip “with considerable sadness”, but that he could not return unless there were “great changes in the leadership’s stance on the issues outlined”. Allow Scribd content? This article includes content provided by Scribd . We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. Allow and continue An official party statement thanked Field for his service. However, a Labour source said: “Frank has been looking for an excuse to resign for some time.” The source said much of Field’s letter was connected to a complaint linked to his local party, which had been investigated and resolved. The veteran backbench MP known for his expertise on welfare and poverty issues has been criticised by some supporters of Corbyn for his views, notably his backing of Brexit. He will become the third Labour MP to sit as an independent, after John Woodcock and Jared O’Mara separately resigned the whip over the party’s handling of misconduct claims against them. The shadow justice secretary, Richard Burgon, suggested Field’s resignation should trigger a byelection in the safe seat, which the MP held with a majority of more than 25,000 in last year’s general election. Politicians who are elected as Labour MPs by their constituents and who then leave the Labour Party should do the right and respectful thing and call a by-election straight away. They should ask for their constituents’ consent to continue to represent them on a different basis. — Richard Burgon MP (@RichardBurgon) August 30, 2018 In his resignation letter, Field highlighted the controversy last week when comments by Corbyn from 2013 emerged in which the Labour leader said a group of Zionists had “no sense of English irony” despite “having lived in this country for a very long time”. This was, Field wrote to Brown, “the latest example of Labour’s leadership becoming a force for antisemitism in British politics”. “Britain fought the second world war to banish these views from our politics, but that superhuman effort and success is now under huge and sustained internal attack,” Field said. “The leadership is doing nothing substantive to address this erosion of core values. It saddens me to say that we are increasingly seen as a racist party. This issue alone compels me to resign the whip.” Corbyn has been forced to issue a series of statements in recent weeks clarifying his stance – in the latest, saying he was using the term Zionist “in the accurate political sense”. Labour also launched a complaint against several newspapers over a separate story about a wreath-laying ceremony in 2014, revealed by the Daily Mail. Profile Frank Field Show The veteran MP, who has resigned the Labour whip, was among those who nominated Jeremy Corbyn for the leadership in 2015, calling the other candidates 'thin post-Blair gruel' and saying the leftwinger would change the terms of the debate. Field, 79, has been MP for Birkenhead since 1979. He served as a minister under Tony Blair but is best known for his role as chair of the work and pensions select committee, taking robust positions on food banks, benefit sanctions, the gig economy and migrant workers. Most recently, his Euroscepticism has been in the spotlight, often voting against the party whip on Brexit, including recent votes where pro-Brexit Labour rebels saved Theresa May’s government from devastating defeats. Field had been facing the possible threat of deselection, and recently narrowly lost a no-confidence vote in his local party. The MP said his constituency Labour party was trying to 'misrepresent' his pro-Brexit vote. 'It would have been a betrayal of the principles I have held for my entire political life, had I voted against the legislation,' he said. After he announced he was quitting the whip, critics were quick to point to some of Field's more rightwing views; citing his comments about the need for controls on migrant workers and his admiration for Margaret Thatcher, who he said was “certainly a hero”. Field has, however, been one of the Conservative government’s fiercest critics in recent years, particularly on universal credit, which he said was forcing people into desperate poverty. Earlier this year, he told MPs about a constituent who had considered suicide because of payment delays, a speech that brought a Tory MP to tears. He was one of the first MPs to speak out about the rising use of food banks, as chair of the all-party parliamentary group on hunger, saying they were fast becoming 'an institutional part of our welfare state'. Field has also criticised the gig economy, calling it 'bogus self-employment … peddled by those who benefit so handsomely from the gig economy, to avoid the obligations they have to their workforce'. Photograph: David Rose/REX/Shutterstock/Rex Features Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback. On Wednesdaythree leading Jewish organisations wrote to Labour, calling on Corbyn to end the “impasse” over tackling antisemitism in the party and calling the abuse of Jews on social media during the row this summer “unfathomably vast”. The day before, the former chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks said Corbyn’s comment about Zionists was the most offensive statement by a senior UK politician since Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood” speech. Labour dismissed the comparison with Powell as “absurd and offensive”. In his letter, Field said bullying and intimidation were “sadly manifest within my own constituency Labour party (CLP) in Birkenhead”. “This is, I fear, just one example of a phenomenon that has tightened its grip on CLPs across the country and is being driven, in part, by members who in previous years would never have been able to claim Labour party membership.” Saying he had first highlighted specific bullying claims 18 months ago, Field added: “No decisive action has been taken.” Having represented Birkenhead since 1979, Field spent virtually all his career as an MP on the backbenches, where he has built a reputation as an expert on social security and combating poverty. He was one of the 35 MPs who nominated Corbyn for the leadership in 2015.<doc-sep>In 1989, Frank Field was deselected by his Birkenhead constituency party and threatened to fight a by-election as an independent. Covering the story, I remember how Neil Kinnock, the Labour leader, strained every sinew to keep Field inside the tent. “We cannot afford to lose someone like Frank; it would send a terrible signal,” was the view of Kinnock’s camp. Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) ordered a re-run of the selection contest, and Field narrowly survived. The wheel has turned full circle. In interviews today, Field made clear he is considering whether to trigger a by-election after resigning the Labour whip yesterday. But Labour is a very different party now: Jeremy Corbyn, rejecting pleas by centrist Labour MPs to try to keep Field on board, waved him goodbye, briefly thanking him for his service. Now that he sits as an “Independent Labour MP”, Field has the right label, as he has always been independent-minded. In 2009, at a party to mark his 30 years in parliament, I was shocked when the star guest turned up – Margaret Thatcher. By being one of a handful of Labour MPs to defy the party whip and support Theresa May in Commons votes on Brexit, Field probably knew he would face a “no confidence” vote in his local party, which duly happened last month. The party then asked the Labour leadership to withdraw the whip but nothing happened and there was no sign of it happening. However, Field probably judged that he faced deselection before the next general election. Corbyn allies claim Field was therefore “looking for an excuse” to resign, but Field arguably gave his critics an excuse by backing Brexit, even opposing MPs having a “meaningful vote” on any deal. However, Corbyn handed Field an excuse on a plate: his woeful handling of the antisemitism controversy which has eclipsed Brexit as this summer's biggest political story (as well as Labour’s “build it in Britain” campaign, which you may not have noticed at all). I don’t believe Corbyn has a racist bone in his body. But I do believe the political management of this unnecessary crisis has been dreadful. It was a mistake to portray genuine concerns about antisemitism as a plot to undermine Corbyn. Playing the victim works sometimes – and Corbyn often is a victim of media misrepresentation – but looks awful when it doesn’t. Think Trump. Field’s announcement was badly timed for Corbyn, who will belatedly try to draw a line under the sorry saga next week, when the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) and NEC discuss the issue. I expect the NEC will finally adopt in full the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which Labour should have done months ago and would have prevented its lost summer. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Show all 11 1 /11 The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He called Hezbollah and Hamas ‘friends’ True. In a speech made to the Stop the War Coalition in 2009, Mr Corbyn called representatives from both groups “friends” after inviting them to Parliament. He later told Channel 4 he wanted both groups, who have factions designated as international terror organisations, to be “part of the debate” for the Middle East peace process. “I use (the word ‘friends’) in a collective way, saying our friends are prepared to talk,” he added. “Does it mean I agree with Hamas and what it does? No. Does it mean I agree with Hezbollah and what they do? No.” Reuters The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn ‘Jeremy Corbyn thinks the death of Osama bin Laden was a tragedy’ Partly false. David Cameron used this as a line of attack at the Conservative Party conference but appears to have left out all context from Mr Corbyn’s original remarks. In an 2011 interview on Iranian television, the then-backbencher said the fact the al-Qaeda leader was not put on trial was the tragedy, continuing: “The World Trade Center was a tragedy, the attack on Afghanistan was a tragedy, the war in Iraq was a tragedy.” The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He is ‘haunted’ by the legacy of his ‘evil’ great-great-grandfather False. A Daily Express exposé revealed that the Labour leader’s ancestor, James Sargent, was the “despotic” master of a Victorian workhouse. Addressing the report at the Labour conference, Mr Corbyn said he had never heard of him before, adding: “I want to take this opportunity to apologise for not doing the decent thing and going back in time and having a chat with him about his appalling behaviour.” The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn raised a motion about ‘pigeon bombs’ in Parliament This one is true. On 21 May 2004, Mr Corbyn raised an early day motion entitled “pigeon bombs”, proposing that the House register being “appalled but barely surprised” that MI5 reportedly proposed to load pigeons with explosives as a weapon. The motion continued: “The House… believes that humans represent the most obscene, perverted, cruel, uncivilised and lethal species ever to inhabit the planet and looks forward to the day when the inevitable asteroid slams into the earth and wipes them out thus giving nature the opportunity to start again.” It was not carried. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He rides a Communist bicycle False. A report in The Times referred to Mr Corbyn, known for his cycling, riding a “Chairman Mao-style bicycle” earlier this year. “Less thorough journalists might have referred to it as just a bicycle, but no, so we have to conclude that whenever we see somebody on a bicycle from now on, there goes another supporter of Chairman Mao,” he later joked. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn 'Jeremy Corbyn will appoint a special minister for Jews' False so far. The Sun report in December was allegedly based on a “rumour” passed to the paper by a Daily Express columnist who has written pieces critical of the Labour leader in the past. The minister did not materialise in his shadow cabinet. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn ‘Jeremy Corbyn wishes Britain would abolish its Army’ False. Another gem from The Sun took comments made at a Hiroshima remembrance parade in August 2012 where Mr Corbyn supported Costa Rica’s move to abolish it armed forces. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every politician around the world…abolished the army and took pride in the fact that they don’t have an army,” he added. The caveat that “every politician” must take the step suggests Mr Corbyn does not support UK disarmament just yet. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn stole sandwiches meant for veterans False. The Guido Fawkes blog claimed that the Labour leader took sandwiches meant for veterans at at Battle of Britain memorial service in September but a photo later emerged showing him being handed one by Costa volunteers, who later confirmed they were given to all guests. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He missed the induction into the Queen’s privy council True. After much speculation about Mr Corbyn’s republican views and willingness to bow to the monarch, his office confirmed that he did not attend the official induction to the privy council because of a prior engagement, but did not rule out joining the body. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn refuses to sing the national anthem. Partly true. The Labour leader was filmed standing in silence as God Save the Queen was sung at a Battle of Britain remembrance service but will reportedly sing it in future. Mr Corbyn was elusive on the issue in an interview, saying he would show memorials “respect in the proper way”, but sources said he would sing the anthem at future occasions. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Cheese True. The group lists its purpose as the following: “To increase awareness of issues surrounding the dairy industry and focus on economic issues affecting the dairy industry and producers.”<doc-sep>
Labour has warned the veteran MP Frank Field that he could be kicked out of the party with immediate effect, after he resigned the whip citing concerns over antisemitism and a culture of bullying. Field, a member for 60 years and an MP since 1979, said on Friday that he had been told he would be kicked out of the party in two weeks unless he withdraws his resignation from the party whip. The MP for Birkenhead told the Guardian he would not withdraw his resignation letter and plans to fight any attempt to remove him from the party. But a Labour source disputed that Field had time to change his mind. “The chief whip conveyed to him that the rules state resigning the whip means resigning from the party. That happens immediately – there’s no two-week cooling off period,” the source said. Field held a meeting on Friday with Nick Brown, the party’s chief whip, in the House of Commons. The meeting was called following the MP’s shock resignation on Thursday. Profile Frank Field Show The veteran MP, who has resigned the Labour whip, was among those who nominated Jeremy Corbyn for the leadership in 2015, calling the other candidates 'thin post-Blair gruel' and saying the leftwinger would change the terms of the debate. Field, 79, has been MP for Birkenhead since 1979. He served as a minister under Tony Blair but is best known for his role as chair of the work and pensions select committee, taking robust positions on food banks, benefit sanctions, the gig economy and migrant workers. Most recently, his Euroscepticism has been in the spotlight, often voting against the party whip on Brexit, including recent votes where pro-Brexit Labour rebels saved Theresa May’s government from devastating defeats. Field had been facing the possible threat of deselection, and recently narrowly lost a no-confidence vote in his local party. The MP said his constituency Labour party was trying to 'misrepresent' his pro-Brexit vote. 'It would have been a betrayal of the principles I have held for my entire political life, had I voted against the legislation,' he said. After he announced he was quitting the whip, critics were quick to point to some of Field's more rightwing views; citing his comments about the need for controls on migrant workers and his admiration for Margaret Thatcher, who he said was “certainly a hero”. Field has, however, been one of the Conservative government’s fiercest critics in recent years, particularly on universal credit, which he said was forcing people into desperate poverty. Earlier this year, he told MPs about a constituent who had considered suicide because of payment delays, a speech that brought a Tory MP to tears. He was one of the first MPs to speak out about the rising use of food banks, as chair of the all-party parliamentary group on hunger, saying they were fast becoming 'an institutional part of our welfare state'. Field has also criticised the gig economy, calling it 'bogus self-employment … peddled by those who benefit so handsomely from the gig economy, to avoid the obligations they have to their workforce'. Photograph: David Rose/REX/Shutterstock/Rex Features Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback. Brown told Field that party rules say MPs cannot resign from the whip and still maintain Labour membership. Field said he would fight any such move in the courts if necessary. “If I am denied party membership, I will appeal [against] that. I will get the best lawyers I can to fight my case. There are members of the Labour party in the House of Lords who do not take the whip. I want to be treated equally,” he said. He declined to name the peers who he said do not take the whip. If Field is ejected from the party, he would no longer be able to stand as an official Labour candidate. He has already said he would stand as an independent candidate at the next general election if he cannot represent Labour. “I am still going to represent my constituents in parliament, and I still want to represent them in the party and I still want to be their candidate at the next election. If I can’t be the Labour candidate, I will be the independent Labour candidate,” he said. Field added he planned to maintain his role as the chair of the work and pensions select committee. “I was voted in by the whole house.