THE resignation of a group of seven Labour MPs to create a new Independent Group in the House of Commons has been criticised by the man who stood for the party at two general elections in Westmorland and Lonsdale.

On Monday Chuka Umunna, Luciana Berger, Chris Leslie, Angela Smith, Gavin Shuker, Mike Gapes and Ann Coffey resigned from Labour over of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, his stance on Brexit and his handling of allegations of anti-Semitism.

They issued an appeal to MPs from both Labour and other parties to "leave the old tribal politics behind" and join their new grouping.

John Bateson, the Labour candidate for Westmorland and Lonsdale in 2001 and 2015, said: "I deeply regret the decision by some Labour MPs to leave the Labour Party. I believe that they have made the wrong decision.

"I was brought up in a working class and staunchly Labour family in the South Lakes, and the election of Labour governments helped to transform the lives of working people and create the fairer and more equal society which they richly deserve.

"However I have been appalled by the anti semitism and extremism witnessed in the last few years. The Labour Party needs to address these issues if it is to effectively challenge the Conservatives and win power again."

But the decision by the rebels was welcomed by Furness MP John Woodcock who quit the Labour party last summer to become an independent.

He said that while his "friends" had had the courage to leave Labour, he had not yet asked to join the new group.

"Before doing so I want to understand what will be its attitude to Trident, which is fundamentally important to employment in my constituency," he said. "Also, I want to be clear that the new group will have a robust and independent process for investigating grievances such as that rightly demanded by the Labour Too group, which Labour refused to apply to my complaint.

One of the reasons I left the Labour Party was because it manipulated its disciplinary process to suspend me after I spoke out about Jeremy Corbyn’s handling of the Russia Skripal attack and told friends I was considering resigning the Labour whip in disgust. The decision to place details of the complaint in two Sunday newspapers shortly after this broke the confidentiality of the process against what I understand were the expressed wishes of the complainant.

"My experience has shown me that all political groups should have an independent complaints process which is transparent and deals with any matters quickly and fairly, otherwise both parties can be let down. I couldn’t join anything which didn’t have those robust structures in place."