Food blogger and poverty campaigner points to Labour’s stance on immigration as reason behind ‘inevitable’ decision to leave party

Food blogger and poverty campaigner Jack Monroe has joined the Green party, less than a year and a half after appearing in a Labour party campaign video.

Monroe – who rose to fame with her blog about cooking healthy meals for her son while living on the breadline – posted a picture of her Green party membership letter on her Instagram account, attributing her decision to desert Labour to the party’s stance on immigration.

“It was kind of inevitable after the ‘Labour gets tough on immigration’ speeches, and been a long time coming,” she wrote. “Hard decision in the end, but definitely feels like the right one. Still have a lot of love for the Labour Party, but just disagree with too much of it right now.”



Monroe appeared in a Labour party broadcast on the cost of living crisis released in October 2013. It was criticised at the time for featuring millionaire restaurateur Beresford Casey, who lives near the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, in Primrose Hill, north London.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Monroe appears in a Labour party broadcast

The blogger – who writes regularly for the Guardian – wrote below her post on Instagram that she’d been “chewing over [her decision] since meeting Natalie [Bennett, Green party leader,] in person for the first time over a year ago”.

She wrote: “[I] consistently find myself agreeing with everything I read, sealed with that Guardian interview with Caroline a couple of weeks ago. It just feels right, right now. In an ideal world we’d have a Labour/SNP/Green coalition.”

Jack Monroe (@MsJackMonroe) Nice to see how quickly some Labour knives stick in after 10 years campaigning for them and staunch defence. With friends like these, etc.

Monroe later hinted at a backlash from Labour supporters, tweeting: “Nice to see how quickly some Labour knives stick in after 10 years campaigning for them and staunch defence. With friends like these etc.”