Ex-MP Emma Dent Coad quits Labour with blast at Keir Starmer

Fresh war between Keir and the Corbynites: In wake of Diane Abbott suspension now another Corbyn ally disappears as ex-MP Emma Dent Coad quits Labour with blast at Keir Starmer for accepting football freebie from firm forced to pay out £11m over cladding

• Former MP for Kensington claims Labour left-wingers are being ‘hunted down’ 

Former MP Emma Dent Coad has become the latest Jeremy Corbyn ally to leave Labour after she quit the party with a blast at Sir Keir Starmer.

The 68-year-old, who was MP for Kensington between 2017 and 2019, revealed she had ‘regretfully’ left Labour after nearly 40 years of membership.

Ms Dent Coad said she no longer felt ‘welcome’ in the party as she claimed left-wingers were being ‘hunted down and forced out, or expelled’.

Her departure follows the suspension of Diane Abbott as a Labour MP after she faced a backlash for suggesting Jewish people don’t suffer racism.

Ms Dent Coad, who was the local MP when the Grenfell Tower tragedy occurred, also hit out at Sir Keir for accepting free football tickets from a firm that was ordered to pay out £10.8million over defective cladding.

In a video posted to her Twitter account, Emma Dent Coad suggested Labour was ‘unrecognisable’ now Sir Keir Starmer has replaced Jeremy Corbyn as leader

Ms Dent Coad was a supporter of Mr Corbyn and a member of the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs during her time in Parliament

The former MP hit out at Sir Keir for accepting free football tickets from a firm that was ordered to pay out £10.8million over defective cladding

Ms Dent Coad was a supporter of Mr Corbyn and a member of the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs during her time in Parliament.

In a video posted to her Twitter account, she suggested Labour was ‘unrecognisable’ now Sir Keir has replaced Mr Corbyn as leader.

‘After a great deal of soul-searching I’ve regretfully decided to resign from the Labour Party,’ she said, as she revealed she would now sit as an independent councillor on Kensington and Chelsea Council.

‘I’ve been a member for nearly 40 years and in that time I’ve been a critical friend but I’ve always felt part of the broad church of the Labour movement.

‘I’ve campaigned for every leader, London mayor and parliamentary candidate – that is loyalty.

‘Sadly I no longer feel welcome in the party.

‘Members who campaigned for peace against nuclear weapons, in support of refugees, for equity to reduce inequalities, for an end to the persecution of Palestinian civilians by Israeli military forces, are being hunted down and forced out, or expelled.’

Ms Dent Coad’s departure follows the suspension of Diane Abbott as a Labour MP after she faced a backlash for suggesting Jewish people don’t suffer racism

Ms Dent Coad claimed Labour was ‘now complicit’ in ‘destroying’ the NHS, while she attacked Sir Keir for failing to ‘stand by the right to strike’ during widespread industrial disputes amid the cost-of-living crisis.

She also attacked Labour members who are ‘accepting funds from the private healthcare industry and hospitality from contractors involved in the cladding scandal’.

Earlier this month, it was revealed how Sir Keir declared a donation of hospitality football match tickets, valued at £1,070, from Mulalley & Co Limited for Arsenal’s Premier League match with West Ham.

The Essex-based construction firm was last year told to pay £10.8million in costs and damages to the owner of a set of residential towers following an historic High Court judgement. 

A judge awarded substantial damages for remedial work undertaken to address defects in a cladding system installed at four towers in Portsmouth.

‘I’m not leaving the party, the party has left me – it is unrecognisable,’ Ms Dent Coad added in her social media video.

‘This has been a difficult decision but I can no longer be complicit with the current trajectory of the party.

‘Respect and best wishes to those who can.’

Ms Dent Coad’s departure follows both the removal of the Labour whip from Ms Abbott and Sir Keir’s recent move to block Mr Corbyn from standing as an official Labour candidate at the next general election.

The ex-Labour leader has been an independent MP since losing the Labour whip himself in October 2020, which followed a row over his response to a critical report into the party’s handling of anti-Semitism allegations.

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