FORMER Glasgow MP and transport minister Tom Harris has quit Labour amid the row over anti-Semitism.

Harris, a vocal critic of leader Jeremy Corbyn, told The Herald: "It's just not the place for me any more".

He said: "I'm just an ordinary member of the Labour Party who has decided to resign after 34 years.

"It felt a wee bit like a bereavement, I felt a bit emotional, but it's just not the place for me any more. It's a personal decision.

"It’s not a comment on any people who have chosen to remain. This is just what’s right for me. It’s just a personal thing.”

Harris represented Glasgow Cathcart then Glasgow South from 2001 to 2015, and was transport minister from 2006 to 2008.

He did not confirm if his decision was linked to Corbyn or anti-Semitism.

However it comes as the Labour leader's efforts to build bridges with the Jewish community have been rebuffed by critics.

Corbyn has insisted he will root out anti-Semites from Labour and acknowledged mistakes in the way the party had handled the crisis.

But the Jewish Labour Movement said trust had broken down with the party leadership, while the Campaign Against Antisemitism lashed out at Corbyn's failure to apologise for his own conduct.

In early 2016, Harris said Corbyn, “while no anti-Semite himself” had “rarely hesitated to share platforms” with people who were.

He wrote: “Unfortunately for Labour, the election of Corbyn as its leader has thrown a spotlight on a nasty kind of politics.

"Corbyn’s association with, and friendship of, the Hamas terrorist organisation is a good starting point: here is an organisation which, far from denying its anti-Semitism, proudly states its commitment to killing Jews in its own constitution."

Harris more recently said Corbyn's close colleagues believed he would be “a disaster” as prime minister” because of “his general lack of abilities” and past associations.

“Labour MPs believe that a Labour government headed by Jeremy Corbyn would make this country less secure and would place the Jewish community in a vulnerable position”.

SNP MP Stewart McDonald, who defeated Harris in 2015, said: “Tom has been a loyal Labour party member, a minister and an MP, and the fact he felt he had to resign from his party after all these years is a great shame.”

Harris stood for the Scottish Labour leadership in 2011, losing to Johann Lamont, but returned to frontbench politics in 2012 as Ed Miliband's shadow environment minister.

He also led the Scottish branch of Vote Leave during the EU referendum campaign.