The six Labour MPs who have left Keir Starmer’s government since election | Labour

Rushanara Ali

The homelessness minister resigned after it emerged tenants of a property she owns who had not had their lease renewed because she planned to sell the property had seen the same property back up for let with a substantial rent increase shortly afterwards.

Her spokesperson said the property had been put up for sale, and the tenants offered the chance to stay until that process ended. But Ali said she stepped down to avoid “becoming a distraction” from the government’s work.

Vicky Foxcroft

The Labour whip, responsible for ensuring discipline among the party’s MPs, herself resigned because she could not support the government’s welfare plans. Foxcroft, a shadow disability minister before the general election, said she would not be able to vote for cuts to disability payments.

Anneliese Dodds

The international development minister quit over Starmer’s decision to almost halve the international aid budget to pay for an increase in defence spending. Dodds had worked closely with the former shadow chancellor John McDonnell in the past and her presence by Starmer’s side had been seen by some as an indication he would not turn his back entirely on the left of the party.

Andrew Gwynne

Sacked as a health minister and suspended from the party after it emerged he had sent messages in which he said he hoped a pensioner who did not support him would die before the next set of elections, and made racist and sexist comments – including some about Angela Rayner and Diane Abbott.

Tulip Siddiq

The anti-corruption minister resigned over claims that her family ties to her aunt Sheikh Hasina – the ousted prime minister of Bangladesh accused of corruption – were harming the government.

While an investigation found no evidence Siddiq had broken any rules, it was suggested she could have been more alive to the reputational risks. She resigned, saying that to stay would have been a “distraction from the work of the government”.

Louise Haigh

Haigh resigned after it emerged she had pleaded guilty to a fraud offence after wrongly reporting a mobile phone stolen to the police. Haigh was told to resign by No 10 for a possible breach of the ministerial code.

Haigh said the offence was spent and sources said she had declared the conviction to Starmer upon becoming a shadow minister in 2020.

But a No 10 source said they did not believe she had been fully transparent and that her departure was more to do with that than with the original offence.