FORMER MSP Neil Findlay has resigned from the party he says “betrays the people who voted for it.”

The resignation from the one-time contender for the Scottish Labour leadership comes less than 24 hours after Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall announced £5 billion in cuts to social security, sparking outcry from disability organisations and from politicians across the party divide.

Ms Kendall’s statement proved to be the final straw for Mr Findlay, who after “over three and a half decades” in the party, nine years as a councillor and 10 as an MSP, told Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in a stinging letter: “I can no longer remain a member of a party that lied to the British people at the last election and with regularity betrays the people who voted for it.”

He said the party failed to tell the electorate the “change” being offered was to “impoverish pensioners through cuts to their winter fuel allowance, betray Waspi women by refusing to compensate them for the state’s failure, punish defenceless children by maintaining the horrific two child cap, abandon the Grangemouth workers and now attack the long-term sick and disabled by slashing social security payments.

“All of this to fund spending on the UK’s war machine – weapons that will kill and injure innocent men, women and children in far off lands.”

Asking “who is really milking the system,” he continued: “As political leaders like you Mr Starmer and your colleague Wes Streeting seek to stigmatise mental illness and take money from those suffering from cancer, MS or heart disease, you accept hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of freebies.

“It’s one rule for you and another rule for the poor, the sick and disabled.

“Today, you lead a government that is betraying Labour’s proud history and lays waste to any claim of moral principle.”

Going on to state the party will be lucky to come third in next year’s Holyrood elections, faces losing power in Wales and risks being “routed” at the next election, putting its very existence in peril, he added: “This will all be down to your disastrous tenure.”

He concluded: “In solidarity with the individuals and families who will be affected by these vindictive and brutal policies and for my own sanity, dignity and self respect, I can no longer remain a member of the Labour Party.”

The Labour Party was contacted for comment.