Short to step down as MP

Clare Short has announced she will stand down as a Labour MP in order to campaign for a hung parliament.

Labour whips had told the former international development secretary that trying to get fewer Labour MPs at the next election was not compatible with taking the party whip.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Short did not rule out running as an independent but suggested it was not likely.

The MP, who resigned over the Iraq war once hostilities had ended, renewed her attack on Tony Blair and his government.

Writing in the Independent, the Birmingham Ladywood MP said she was "profoundly ashamed" of the government.

"There are many good things that New Labour has done since 1997, mostly things Labour committed itself to before the New Labour coup, but I have reached a stage where I am profoundly ashamed of the government," she said.

Lambasting Blair's support for "US neoconservative foreign policy", she said: "He has dishonoured the UK, undermined the UN and international law and helped to make the world a more dangerous place."

She went on: "In addition to the arrogance and lack of principle of New Labour, there is an incredible incompetence.

"Policy is announced from Number 10 to grab media attention and nothing is properly thought through."

Short claimed that if British politics is to be restored to health a hung parliament was necessary in order to encourage electoral reform.

She said Labour should hold a third of the seats, the Tories a third and the rest should be made up of Greens and other parties.

"I am standing down so that I can speak the truth and support the changes that are needed," she wrote.