WITH the announcement by lifelong Labour party supporter, actor Maureen Lipman, that she 'in all seriousness can no longer support the current Labour party' I too have been a lifelong Labour supporter and former member and feel I can no longer support the current Labour party.

My reasons are, the Labour party has lost its roots with ordinary people, the very people it was originally set up by trade unions to represent ordinary working people.

There are a handful of MPs that are from a working class background in the party, the rest are from a middle class and privileged upbringing and no longer relate to the working class.

Ed Milliband has had an elite education and privilege an I don’t believe he will win the General Election in six months' time.

Labour have been far too soft on immigration with an open door policy and Ed Milliband even wants to lift the cap on migrants to let more in. He has stated that immigration and Europe are not an issue. I want a referendum on in out of the EU membership which Labour won't allow.

Ed Milliband isn’t listening to his own supporters and is behaving like he knows best. I predict another coalition could be formed. none of the partys will win an overall majority. the Lib Dems will finish lower than UKIP and that UKIP may end up with the balance of power with a coalition between the Tories or Labour.

I gave up my membership of the Labour party due to the party drifting too far to the right on issues. Labour wanting to privatise Royal Mail, the use of private contracts in the NHS and the private finance of building hospitals in the past all things that the traditional Labour party of the past would never have considered.

Tony Blair, whose dad was a Tory councillor, merely carried on where Maggie Thatcher left off. He never reversed any of her policies.

He is even quoted as telling Ed Milliband not to go to the left. Both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown even invited Maggie Thatcher to No 10 after winning to discuss things?

She is the last person they should have been seen with after what she did to this country.

This coupled with the recent fiasco in Warrington’s constituency Labour party and subsequent investigation by Lord Kennedy, which was never published, have killed any faith I had in Labour.

KEVIN MANNION
Orford