Work and Pensions Committee chair Frank Field to stand against Labour in next election
Work and Pensions Committee chair Frank Field is to fight for his seat at the next election against his former party, he said today.
Field resigned the Labour whip last year, blaming the party’s problems with anti-semitism and accusing Labour of “intolerance, nastiness, and intimidation”.
Read more: Labour MP Frank Field resigns, claiming party is ‘force for antisemitism’
Field said today he had launched his own party, the Birkenhead Social Justice Party, to fight for his Merseyside seat at the next election.
Field said: “I will be standing again as a candidate at the next election with the aim of doing what I have done for 40 years.Always putting the interests of our town and our country first while championing the views and interests of the underdogs in our society.”
Pro-Brexit MP Field was elected to represent Birkenhead in 1979.
Read more: Frank Field slams financial regulator over delay to pension advice fee decision
The 77-year old served as a minister for welfare reform in Tony Blair’s first government.
He then served as a member of the Public Accounts Committee between 2002 and 2005 and currently chairs the Work and Pensions Select Committee.
Field has been a vocal critic of the management of collapsed outsourcer Carillion and has also targeted the Big FOur accountancy firms, calling their break up in the wake of Carillion’s collapse.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “The people of Birkenhead voted for a Labour MP in 2017 with a near 10 per cent increase in vote share, and deserve a Labour MP again.
“Birkenhead CLP is currently selecting its Labour candidate to fight the next general election whenever it comes, so we can defeat Boris Johnson’s hard-right government offering tax cuts for the super-rich, and elect a Labour government that will transform society in the interests of the many not just a privileged few.”