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Short resigns from Labour party
In a letter to the party's chief whip obtained by Guardian Unlimited, the outspoken ex-cabinet minister said that she wished to become an "independent Labour MP" and remained "a convinced social democrat".
"It is my view that our political system is in trouble and that the exaggerated majorities in the House of Commons have led to an abject parliament and a concentration of power in No 10 that has produced arrogant, error-prone government, " the letter reads.
"It is my view that our political system is in trouble and that the exaggerated majorities in the House of Commons have led to an abject parliament and a concentration of power in No 10 that has produced arrogant, error-prone government, " the letter reads.
It also accuses the party's former chief whip, Jacqui Smith, of attempting to stop Ms Short criticising Tony Blair's "series of half-truths and deceits to get us to war in Iraq".
"In the circumstances I think the best way to ensure that I can put forward my views for my remaining time in parliament is for me to resign the whip. I will therefore sit in the House of Commons as an independent Labour MP."
...
The move comes as the latest in a long line of disagreements between Ms Short and the party.
Since 2003, she has been at odds with the government over her opposition to the war in Iraq, which led to her quitting the cabinet.
Since leaving the cabinet she has become a frequent critic of the prime minister.
Last month Ms Short, 60, announced that she would resign at the next election and campaign for a hung parliament because she was "profoundly ashamed" of the Labour government.
In an article in the Independent newspaper, Ms Short said that New Labour was arrogant, lacked principle and displayed "incredible" incompetence.
She wrote that the future of British politics was a hung parliament which would encourage electoral reform and said that Labour should hold a third of the seats, the Tories a third and the rest should be made up of Greens and other parties.
More
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/story/0,,1927585,00.html
"In the circumstances I think the best way to ensure that I can put forward my views for my remaining time in parliament is for me to resign the whip. I will therefore sit in the House of Commons as an independent Labour MP."
...
The move comes as the latest in a long line of disagreements between Ms Short and the party.
Since 2003, she has been at odds with the government over her opposition to the war in Iraq, which led to her quitting the cabinet.
Since leaving the cabinet she has become a frequent critic of the prime minister.
Last month Ms Short, 60, announced that she would resign at the next election and campaign for a hung parliament because she was "profoundly ashamed" of the Labour government.
In an article in the Independent newspaper, Ms Short said that New Labour was arrogant, lacked principle and displayed "incredible" incompetence.
She wrote that the future of British politics was a hung parliament which would encourage electoral reform and said that Labour should hold a third of the seats, the Tories a third and the rest should be made up of Greens and other parties.
More
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/story/0,,1927585,00.html
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Saturday October 21, 2006
The Guardian
Clare Short's 23-year parliamentary career reached its apparently inevitable denouement yesterday when she resigned the Labour whip, denouncing Tony Blair's "half-truths" and his "arrogant, error-prone government".
She said she wanted to use her remaining years in parliament as an independent MP, free to campaign for a hung parliament, a check on the executive and an end to presidential government.
Ms Short may now be expelled from the party, although she said she wanted to remain a party member. She had been repeatedly warned that her support for a hung parliament meant she was opposed to the election of some Labour MPs.
More
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/story/0,,1928024,00.html
Clare Short angrily resigned yesterday as a Labour MP, condemning Tony Blair for "half truths and deceits" over the war on Iraq and accusing his Government of being "arrogant" and "error-prone".
The former Cabinet minister furiously attacked the Chief Whip Jacqui Smith for bringing about the "breaking point" that forced her to quit the Labour whip in the Commons after 23 years.
She also accused the Labour leadership of dirty tricks by leaking her letter of resignation to the press, saying it had been posted privately to the Chief Whip on Thursday.
News of her resignation broke as Ms Short was visiting a local hospital in her Birmingham Ladywood constituency.
But Ms Smith hit back, accusing Ms Short of leaking her decision to the media. She said: "It is unfortunate she decided to announce this through a leak to the media rather than to her constituency Labour Party."
As the furious recriminations continued, Ms Short spoke of the pain of her decision to resign the Labour whip. Speaking to The Independent, Ms Short said she wanted to stay on as a Labour member but would sit as an independent MP until the election, when she will retire from Westminster.
However, there is likely to be a move by her local Birmingham Ladywood constituency party to throw her out.
Ms Short said she had agonised over her decision, but decided to resign because of the threats she had received from the Labour Chief Whip.
She was reprimanded for writing in The Independent that she hoped there would be a hung Parliament at the next election that would lead to reform of the voting system and more democratic checks on the power of Downing Street.
In her letter of resignation, she defiantly repeated her call, saying: "Given that the next election might well produce a hung parliament, I want to be free to argue that this creates a valuable opportunity to reform our voting system so that the House of Commons more accurately reflects public opinion and we have a parliament more able to hold the Government to account..."
Ministers brushed aside her departure last night. One said: "Clare had become pretty semi-detached." But she remains a popular figure who will now be free to hound Mr Blair until he resigns from office next year.
Ms Short had grown increasingly disenchanted with Labour after resigning over the war on Iraq. She said she had become "ashamed" of the Government under Mr Blair, whom she accused of deception.
Her resignation as a Labour MP was announced without her authority as she visited a hospital in Birmingham. She was furious that the Chief Whip claimed that it had been Ms Short who informed the press.
Ms Short accused Mr Blair of lying to her to keep her in the Government when she had threatened to resign from the Cabinet before the war on Iraq. "There is a famous allegation against me that I didn't resign at the time of the war on Iraq. That was because Tony Blair had entered into a negotiation with me to try to get me to stay. I said to him, if you can't stop the war, then what is crucial is we move forward on the road map for the Middle East, and get the Palestinian state established, and we absolutely internationalise the reconstruction. It would be led by the UN and backed by the international community. He promised those things and it wasn't true. He just said that to fool me, but I believed he was sincere." She added: "I still think, even though the rush to war was long, if those things had been done, the Middle East would be an entirely different place and Iraq would be a totally different place than it is today.
More
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1916355.ece