ON Monday Darlington MP Jenny Chapman resigned from Labour’s front bench, joining fellow North-East MPs Roberta Blackman-Woods, Anna Turley and Alex Cunningham.

To respond to criticism of her decision on social media, Ms Chapman today posted the following on her Facebook page:  

It would take too long to reply to the many posts disagreeing with my decision to resign, but would like to answer some of them.

I am still Darlington's MP, and will not be resigning from that position.

I respect Jeremy's mandate from last year, if he wins again I'll respect that too. But it is my belief, based on thousands of conversations with residents, that Labour cannot win in Darlington with Jeremy as leader. If I thought for one minute he could bring Labour to victory in a General Election I would continue to back him. Because this is what I believe, threats to deselect me are meaningless.

I am not an out of touch politician. I have lived in Darlington continuously since I was 8 years old and have to trust my own judgement of Labour's prospects. I understand and accept that this may be an irresolvable difference of opinion with many in my party. But the country needs a Labour government, the moment David Cameron resigned and a General Election became likely I saw we had an opportunity to win, but only with the right Leader.

I have been increasingly struck by the level of concern from Labour voters about the weaknesses in Jeremy's leadership, and no amount of trolling online can change my mind about that.

Many members tell me they don't want to go back to air-brushed Blairite politics, and I agree with that. What I would like to see emerge from this process is a leader with the values of social justice, fairness and equality that Jeremy holds, combined with the ability to lead and communicate better with voters.

I hope that even if you disagree with my assessment you can see the rationale behind what I have done. I'll do my best to respond to genuine questions, but won't be responding to nastiness.