Frank Field vows to fight for his Labour membership and restand for Birkenhead

Ex-Labour MP Frank Field has said he will fight the Labour Party to retain his membership after resigning the party whip in August.

In an interview with The House magazine, the veteran MP for Birkenhead revealed Labour had received a “whacking huge letter drafted by brilliant lawyers” that argues he cannot be kicked out of the party despite now sitting as an Independent member in the Commons.

“They have no grounds to terminate my party membership. If they do so it’s because Madame Defarge wishes it,” Field said. “We’re in a country that believes great organisations like political parties are governed by law. They’ve got to come back and, based on law, prove that they are within the law in kicking me out of membership of the Labour Party.”

He added: “I will be fighting it until everybody in the country sees that they have no authority to kick me out.”

Speaking to The House, Field confirmed he would stand as an Independent candidate in his Birkenhead constituency should the party not allow him to represent Labour in the local contest.

“I wish to be the Labour candidate. If I’m not the Labour candidate I will stand as near I can as a Labour candidate and the people of Birkenhead will decide. It won’t be 35 comrades in a Militant-run Labour party.”

The Brexiteer MP also reiterated his wish to regain the whip in the future on the condition that the Labour Party “deal with this terrible intolerance”. In his resignation letter to opposition whip Nick Brown, Field cited antisemitism as a reason for his decision.

He claimed the Labour leadership had become “a force for antisemitism in British politics” and criticised Jeremy Corbyn’s “attempts… to deny that past statements and actions by him were antisemitic”.

Field declared in the interview that people had already considered challenging him for the safe Labour seat, where he currently has a majority of 25,514. “The more the merrier,” the MP said. “They’re all going to tear one another apart, aren’t they? There’s a whole number of ferrets in the sack already deciding they’re going to challenge me.”

In July, Field’s local Labour party passed a motion of no confidence in him, which expressed disapproval of his voting record in parliament and accused the MP of making “inappropriate” media appearances. The letter from a branch secretary, calling for the whip to be withdrawn from Field, noted that the MP “refuses” to attend local party meetings.

The move came after four Brexiteer Labour MPs – Frank Field, Kate Hoey, John Mann and Graham Stringer – voted with the government on Brexit, helping to save Theresa May from a major defeat that could have sparked a general election.

A no-confidence vote by a CLP has no real immediate effect, but indicates that the sitting Labour MP may be vulnerable to deselection. Kate Hoey, Joan Ryan, Gavin Shuker and Chris Leslie have also recently lost no-confidence votes.