A Newcastle MP has quit Labour and will stand down at the next election, after being suspended by the party for more than a year.

Long-serving Nick Brown, the MP for Newcastle East, had the Labour whip suspended in September 2022 after a complaint was made against him.

The 73-year-old, a high-profile figure within Labour who is a former chief whip, announced on Tuesday that he had resigned his membership of the party and will not stand at the next general election.

Since his suspension last year, he has continued to sit as an independent MP while a party investigation has been carried out. 

The Northern Echo: Long-serving Nick Brown, the MP for Newcastle EastLong-serving Nick Brown, the MP for Newcastle East (Image: LDR)

The results of that probe have not been published yet and the exact nature of the complaint against Mr Brown has not been made public.

Mr Brown, who has served as chief whip under every Labour leader from Tony Blair onwards, claimed on Tuesday that the investigation and disciplinary process was “grotesquely unfit for purpose” and that the allegations against him were “entirely false”.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service understands that his decision to quit the party means that the investigation will not carry on – though it would resume if he were ever to seek to rejoin Labour.

In a lengthy statement issued through his solicitors, Mr Brown said: “This is a decision which I had been pondering for some time. I am 73 years old and have had the honour of serving my constituents in Newcastle Upon Tyne East for more than 40 years, during which time I have had the privilege of being the Labour Chief Whip (under four Party leaders) as well as in four ministerial posts.

“My constituency border is now being redrawn following the national constituency boundary changes and I think it is a sensible time for me to retire – given that I would otherwise be nearly 80 by the end of my next term. However, it is also important to make clear that my decision to stand down is made against the backdrop of a long-running internal Labour Party disciplinary process against me – a process which I consider (and am advised) is so fundamentally, and inexcusably, flawed that I can no longer engage with it. 

“As such it is with an extremely heavy heart that, as well as announcing that I will not be standing for re-election, I have also today made the difficult decision to resign from my membership of the Party which I love, and of which I have been a proud member for over 50 years.”

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A Labour spokesperson said: “The Labour Party treats all complaints with the utmost seriousness. The Labour Party has established an independent complaints process that ensures complaints are decided impartially and fairly.”

A former city councillor who was first elected in the East End ward of Walker in 1980, Mr Brown became an MP in 1983 – making him one of the longest serving currently in the House of Commons.

The LDRS understands that Mr Brown was administratively suspended from membership of the Labour Party and had the whip suspended a short time before it was reported in the press, first in The Guardian on September 7 last year.