It is the lunchtime rush at the Royal British Legion club in Penistone, South Yorkshire, and everyone has heard the news. Angela Smith, the town’s MP, has resigned from the Labour party, saying it had become “fuelled by hatred,” “characterised by intolerance” and “unfit for government”.

“Good riddance,” said Mick Drewry, 66, breaking off from a game of snooker as the news was replayed on a television screen nearby. “Come the next election I’d already made my mind up – I just can’t vote for Angela Smith.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest John Clews (left) and Mick Drewry at the Royal British Legion in Penistone. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Drewry, a retired steelworker, has always voted for Labour but said Smith and others had consistently undermined Jeremy Corbyn. “She certainly doesn’t support Jeremy Corbyn – she’s made that plain,” he said.

Smith, the former shadow leader of the Commons, has long been a Corbyn critic, putting her at odds with many local Labour members. In November, she lost a vote of no confidence held by her local constituency Labour party and blamed the result on a “cabal of hard-left” activists.

Following Smith’s announcement, the local party said the MP should “take the honourable path” and resign her seat to trigger a byelection, allowing Labour “to move on and challenge her at the ballot box”.

It thanked her for her 14 years’ service but added: “Many in the constituency will be hugely dismayed by her resignation and some may even feel she has let her constituents down by taking the action she has.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Former Labour party MP Angela Smith speaks at the Independent Group party launch in London. Photograph: Vickie Flores/EPA

Smith has also campaigned prominently for a second EU referendum, pushing Corbyn to lead on a people’s vote on Brexit, potentially putting her at odds with many of her constituents, of whom 61% are estimated to have voted to leave the EU.

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Of the seven who quit Labour on Monday, Smith has the slimmest electoral majority. Barely 1,300 votes separated her from her Tory rival in 2017, when she lost a 6,723-strong majority following a big blue surge. Any byelection would risk splitting the Labour vote in this seat, potentially handing the Tories a big patch of blue in an area that last sent a Conservative MP to parliament in 1933.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Labour MPs Ann Coffey, Angela Smith, Chris Leslie, Chuka Umunna, Mike Gapes, Luciana Berger and Gavin Shuker after they announced their resignations. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

“I think she’s done the right thing – I think they all have, the seven,” said Angela Spivey, 61, a lifelong Labour voter until Corbyn became leader. “I think it’s about time we did have a new party – I would probably vote for them if they bring out good policies.”

Spivey, a former caterer, said MPs from all parties needed to talk to each other and potentially form breakaway movements to solve the Brexit impasse. Would she be in favour of a second referendum, as the so-called “gang of seven” have advocated? “Oh no, I don’t agree with that. We’ve voted and that’s it,” she said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Angela Spivey, who says she wouldn’t back a second EU referendum. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

David Griffin, the Labour councillor for Penistone on Barnsley borough council, was not a member of the local party’s anti-Smith brigade. He said he was “very disappointed that Angela has found it necessary to leave the party”.

Griffin said he did not believe that Smith’s resignation should trigger a byelection but insisted that “with a good candidate” Labour would retain the seat.

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Among members of the local Labour party, he said the news would be met with mixed feelings: “There will be people who think Angela has been an excellent constituency MP and others who have a very different view, who won’t be sad that she’s left.”

Smith was forced to apologise later on Monday after she appeared to talk about people having a “funny tinge” in a debate about racism on the BBC’s Politics Live. In a video on Twitter, the MP said she was “very upset that I misspoke so badly”.

Play Video 0:51 Angela Smith appears to describe people with 'funny tinge' in racism debate – video

Back in the British Legion Club, all the talk was of an urgent byelection. “If not, then for the next three years people who voted Labour have got an independent MP,” said Drewry. “That’s not right, that’s not democracy.”

“I agree,” said Drewry’s snooker partner, John Clews, a 70-year-old former miner. “I do vote Labour but I’m not a great lover of Jeremy Corbyn. Since she’s been MP, I’ve never voted for her. Get someone else in and I will vote Labour, no problem.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tony Thorpe plays snooker at the Royal British Legion. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

On the next table, Tony Thorpe, 74, said the seven resignations had only deepened the turmoil engulfing Westminster’s two main parties. The former local authority worker, who votes Labour, said he was shocked Labour MPs were turning on each other.

“I was a bit surprised that they’re coming out against their own party,” he said. “I would have thought the greater thing was to be against the Conservatives and they should focus on that.”