Newcastle Labour MP Nick Brown to stand down
![Newcastle Labour MP Nick Brown to stand down Newcastle Labour MP Nick Brown to stand down](http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/branded_news/fd61/live/26bb4e10-98eb-11ee-91bf-230bfab3fcba.jpg)
In a statement from his lawyers, Carter Ruck, Mr Brown said: “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.
“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.”
Mr Brown, who has been MP for Newcastle East since 1983, said his decision not to stand for parliament again was one he had been considering for some time due to his age, and because of boundary changes.
But he said his resignation from the party was entirely down to an internal Labour disciplinary process he called “grotesquely unfit for purpose, and open to flagrant abuse”.