Keir Starmer’s freebies meltdown gathered pace today as an MP quit in protest and a poll showed his ratings continuing to plummet.
The PM’s allies tried to shrug off ‘squalls’ engulfing the government after Rosie Duffield dramatically resigned the party whip condemning a culture of sleaze.
Meanwhile, Opinium research showed Sir Keir received no bounce from the Labour conference in Liverpool last week – with his favourability slumping again.
He now has a net score of minus 30 – his worst ever and down from minus 26 a week ago.
The grim picture comes after weeks of revelations about free clothes, spectacles, football ticket, concerts and even accommodation accepted by Labour frontbenchers from donors.
As the government tried to quell the furore, Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden confirmed that rules are being changed so ministers declare gifts in the same way as MPs in future.
However, Tory former MP Penny Mordaunt accused Sir Keir of behaving like ‘Imelda Marcos’ – the wife of Filipino dictator Ferdinand. She notoriously had a huge collection of shoes.
In an explosive resignation letter to Sir Keir, Ms Duffield criticised his ‘cruel and unnecessary policies’ including the decision to keep the two-child benefit cap and means-test the winter fuel payment.
And she accused the PM of ‘hypocrisy’ over his acceptance of free gifts from donors.
Ms Duffield blasted Sir Keir for throwing the electorate’s ‘sacred and precious trust’ in its face ‘and in the faces of Labour MPs’.
The Canterbury MP – who has clashed with Sir Keir over trans rights in the past – slammed ‘heavy-handed management tactics’, adding he had shown neither ‘true nor inspiring leadership’.
Sir Keir has been left struggling to contain a trans row after one of his backbenchers, Nadia Whittome, waded in to say Ms Duffield should already have been kicked out of the party for her views on gender.
That in turn sparked JK Rowling to intervene supporting Ms Duffield and demanding critics ‘keep her name out of your mouth’.
In the letter published by the Sunday Times Ms Duffield said: ‘Since the change of government in July, the revelations of hypocrisy have been staggering and increasingly outrageous.
‘I cannot put into words how angry I and my colleagues are at your total lack of understanding about how you have made us all appear.’
She added: ‘The sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice are off the scale. I am so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party.’
Speaking to the BBC in an interview for the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Ms Duffield said the party was ‘in my heart and in my soul’, but she has lost her ‘faith’ in the leadership.
‘We all had our faith in Keir Starmer and a Labour government, and I feel that voters and activists and MPs are being completely laughed at and completely taken for granted,’ she said.
‘It is so profoundly disappointing to me as a Labour voter and an activist… to see this is what we have become.’
She also told the broadcaster the party leadership seemed ‘more about greed and power than making a difference’, adding: ‘I just can’t take any more.’
Cabinet minister Pat McFadden was sent out to broadcast studios this morning to field questions, acknowledging that Labour was being beset by ‘squalls’ but arguing the government’s direction was unchanged.
‘There are some squalls at the moment but this is a government with a big agenda,’ he said.
Mr McFadden said he was ‘disappointed’ but ‘not surprised’ by Ms Duffield’s decision.
He said: ‘When I read Rosie’s letter last night and listened to the interview there, I think you can see she has been disillusioned with the party leader, maybe the party more generally, for quite a long time.
‘I don’t think this is something that just developed in the last few months.’
Mr McFadden confirmed that the rules will be changed to bring them in line with what shadow ministers and backbench MPs must declare, as he described the current requirements as a ‘Tory loophole’.
Under the current arrangements, introduced by David Cameron in 2015, details of hospitality received by ministers in their ministerial capacity are published by departments.
But the information is released quarterly and does not include the value of the hospitality. MPs’ and shadow ministers’ interests must be declared within 28 days, are published fortnightly and include the cost of the hospitality.
Mr McFadden told the BBC: ‘This was a Tory loophole, brought in so that you would have an event where the Tory minister, as it was under the last government, there, the Labour shadow opposite number would also be there, and the Tory minister would not have to declare.
‘That was the Tory rules, we don’t think that’s fair, so we will close that loophole so ministers and shadow ministers are treated the same going forward.’
But former Tory minister Penny Mordaunt told the BBC that Mr McFadden’s comments were ‘completely untrue’, saying: ‘He clearly doesn’t understand the ministerial code at all, the onus on ministers is much more stringent and I as a minister reported monthly on my hospitality.
‘In 12 weeks, the Labour Government has brought doubt to the economy, fear to the elderly and, I’m afraid, a touch of Imelda Marcos to the office of Prime Minister.’