Update: Lord Mitchell says: “I haven’t made any formal announcement yet and have no immediate plans to do so but I am a man of my word.”
Labour peer Lord Mitchell has quit Labour following Jeremy Corbyn’s re-election as party leader.
The Jewish businessman, who has been in the Lords since 2000 and was formerly a shadow minister, told Heat Street last month that he would resign the Labour whip in the event of a Corbyn victory.
Sources close to him today said he has made good his threat.
It remains unclear whether he will now sit as an Independent Labour peer or as a crossbencher.
Mitchell, 73, was alarmed by the leadership’s reaction to anti-semitism in the party and particularly unhappy with Shami Chakrabarti’s report into the scandal, which she carried out at Corbyn’s request.
He told Heat Street it was a “whitewash”.
Having produced the report, Chakrabarti was created a life peer.
How many more will follow Lord Mitchell?
