Tuesday 19 February 2019 11:28 pm | Updated: Monday 03 June 2019 12:40 am

Labour plunged deeper into chaos as another MP quits Corbyn’s ‘Stalinist’ party

The Labour party has been plunged further into chaos after an eighth MP quit to join a new independent group, attacking leader Jeremy Corbyn for presiding over a culture of antisemitism.

Joan Ryan, who has served in the Labour party for 25 years, said she was “appalled, horrified and angered” by Corbyn’s failure to address anti-Jewish racism and said the problem “simply did not exist” in the party before he became leader.

“I cannot remain a member of the Labour party while its leadership allows Jews to be abused with impunity and the victims of such abuse to be ridiculed, have their motives questioned, and their integrity called into doubt,” she wrote.

The Enfield North MP tore into Corbyn and the “Stalinist clique that surrounds him” for not offering any real opposition to the government.

“Instead they are too busy purging their perceived ideological enemies within and obsessing over issues that are of little interest to the British people,” she wrote.

Ryan added that she does not believe Corbyn is fit to be Prime Minister.

The resignation, first reported by The Times, came just a day after seven Labour MPs quit the party to sit as a new independent group.

Luciana Berger, Chris Leslie, Ann Coffey, Angela Smith, Gavin Shuker, Mike Gapes and Chuka Umunna all stepped down on Monday, citing antisemitism and intolerance within the party.

The mass exodus sent shockwaves through Westminster, and deputy Labour leader Tom Watson urged his colleagues to clamp down on antisemitism to prevent other MPs from leaving.

But Corbyn has defended his policies and insisted the seven MPs who left the party had ample opportunity to influence the direction of the party.

Ryan said she would continue to represent her constituents as an independent MP. “But I cannot and will not do that from within an institutionally antisemitic party,” she said.