Deselected Wareing to quit Labour

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/merseyside/6999733.stm

Version 0 of 1.

Veteran left-wing MP Bob Wareing is to quit Labour after being deselected from his seat by what he denounced as the "New Labour Mafia".

Mr Wareing was deselected by local members in Liverpool West Derby on Sunday after 24 years as its MP, in favour of ex-minister Stephen Twigg.

He accused members of the government of being involved in a concerted effort to have him replaced.

He said he would stand as an independent at the next election.

He said: "My deselection...in a seriously flawed reselection process brings to an end a concerted effort to remove me by the New Labour Mafia.

"The Party leadership (under Blair and Brown) have regarded me as a thorn in their side as I rebelled against their betrayal of the basic principles of the Labour Party.

Stephen Twigg will inherit a Labour majority of more than 15,000

He added: "Anti-Labour policies, such as privatisation, tuition and top-up fees for students and the stock transfer of council houses (with the threat that no repairs would be carried out if they remained under council control) forced tenants to concede to New Labour's wishes.

"Worst of all has been the disaster of the invasion of Iraq, an illegal war in defiance of the United Nations. I was proud to march, with nearly two million others, against that policy."

He said the Labour Party was very different to the one he had been proud to be a member of for 60 years.

Mr Twigg achieved a 17% swing from the Tories to defeat the then-defence secretary Michael Portillo in Enfield Southgate.

But despite increasing his majority in 2001 and going on to become school standards minister, he lost the seat back to the Tories in 2005.

He will inherit a Labour majority of more than 15,000 in his new constituency.