British Member of Parliament Louise Ellman has decided to leave the Labour Party after 55 years, the lawmaker said in a tweet on Wednesday.
"I can no longer advocate voting Labour when it risks [Jeremy] Corbyn becoming PM," Ellman said. "I will continue to serve the people of Liverpool Riverside as I have had the honor to do since 1997."
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
In her youth, Ellman was active in the socialist Zionist movement Habonim Dror and spent a year in Israel, where she met her husband. Ellman is the chairwoman of the Labour Friends of Israel parliamentary lobby.
Her resignation comes months after several MPs resigned over Labour's stance on Brexit and the leadership's handling of accusations of anti-Semitism within the party.
Ellman, 73, said she would not join another party and hoped she could return to Labour under different leadership.
"I believe that Jeremy Corbyn is not fit to serve as our Prime Minister," Ellman said in the statement she posted to Twitter.
I have made the truly agonising decision to leave the Labour Party after 55 years. I can no longer advocate voting Labour when it risks Corbyn becoming PM. I will continue to serve the people of Liverpool Riverside as I have had the honour to do since 1997. pic.twitter.com/3BTzUacZvo
— Louise Ellman MP (@LouiseEllman) October 16, 2019
"With a looming general election and the possibility of him becoming Prime Minister, I feel I have to take a stand. Under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, anti-Semitism has become mainstream in the Labour party. Jewish members have been bullied, abused and driven out.
"Anti-Semites have felt comfortable and vile conspiracy theories have been propagated. A party that permits anti-Jewish racism to flourish cannot be called anti-racist. The Labour party is no longer a safe place for Jews and Jeremy Corbyn must bear the responsibility for that.
"We cannot allow him to do to the country what he has done to the Labour party," she wrote.
Corbyn, a lifelong supporter of Palestinian and Arab causes, took over in 2015.
