UK MP quits party over PM's 'hypocrisy'

LONDON, Sept 29 (AFP): The new government of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer reeled from its first resignation Saturday, as lawmaker Rosie Duffield quit the Labour Party, accusing him of "hypocrisy" over his acceptance of free gifts.

In a blistering resignation letter, Duffield denounced Starmer for pursuing "cruel and unnecessary" policies.

"The sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice are off the scale," she wrote, after it emerged earlier this month that Starmer had accepted more than o100,000 in gifts and hospitality while cutting an annual o300 winter heating payment to some 10 million pensioners.

"I am so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party."