LONDON, Feb 22 - British lawmaker Ian Austin resigned from the opposition Labour Party on Friday, becoming the ninth person to do so this week, saying it was "broken" and had been taken over by the "hard left".
Austin said he did not currently have any plans to join the Independent Group in parliament, set up by seven of his former Labour colleagues earlier this week and joined by an eighth as well as three former members of the governing Conservatives.
"The Labour Party has been my life, so this has been the hardest decision I have ever had to take, but I have to be honest and the truth is that I have become ashamed of the Labour Party under (leader) Jeremy Corbyn," Austin told the Express and Star newspaper, citing the issue anti-Semitism in particular.