• TULIP Siddiq’s reasons for voting against Article 50 in the Commons, emphasises her dilemma in deciding which way to vote (Tulip: Why I had to quit, February 2).

I have been a member of the Labour Party for 50 years and voted to leave the European Union. I have written to Tulip regularly to say what a fantastic MP she has become and was delighted to be invited to her Christmas party in the House of Commons; which is why I was so disappointed at her decision to vote against Brexit. In doing so she has turned her back on the Labour Party, democracy in the UK, and the people who rely on her work as a front-bench spokesperson.

Keir Starmer, front-bench spokesperson on Brexit is doing a great job for the Labour Party and the country, in very difficult circumstances.

She, and all Labour MPs should support him. Tulip says she voted as she did because a majority of those who voted did so to Remain.

According to the Electoral Commission the electorate in this area for the referendum numbered 145,425 and 71,295 voted to Remain, which is less than half of the electorate.

Surely whatever issues come to challenge the Labour Party all its MPs should have the interests of the party at heart, and work to strengthen it not undermine it.

DAVID CHEESEMAN
Address supplied