ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

A second Labour MP today revealed to the Evening Standard he could quit the party whip over Jeremy Corbyn’s handling of the anti-Semitism crisis.

Mike Gapes said he felt “tainted and sickened” by the charge of racism hanging over the party he joined 50 years ago.

The Ilford South MP, who has served in Parliament for 26 years, said he was “agonising” over what to do next.

Former minister Frank Field resigned the Labour whip yesterday — and today suggested he might force a by-election and stand against the party.

Mr Gapes indicated his decision on whether to stay or go could depend on whether the party’s National Executive Committee agrees to adopt in full the internationally agreed definition of anti-Semitism at a showdown meeting on Tuesday.

He warned he could not accept any compromise that involved a “weasel-worded caveat” being adopted at the same time as the formal definition. “I am agonising every day about the situation and the state of the Labour Party,” he said.

“I will make my own decision about how I deal with this in my own time.

“Next week is important because of the role of the NEC [National Executive Committee] on Tuesday and the vote of the Parliamentary Labour Party on Wednesday.”

Labour leadership sources have signalled that the NEC is seeking a compromise that would see it endorse the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism, but might also adopt a form of words that would give a right to free speech.

Left-wingers oppose the full definition as they see it as a curb on criticism of Israel.

In his interview, Mr Gapes made clear he could not support such a compromise that would “undermine” the full definition, which is widely adopted by public bodies and regarded as a cornerstone in the fight against racism.

He said he had always ruled out quitting until the crisis over anti-Semitism engulfed the party under Mr Corbyn’s leadership.

“I now feel tainted and sickened about where we are as a party,” he said. “There are no good options here. After 50 years as a member, Labour is in my DNA.”

Vauxhall MP Kate Hoey, a friend of Mr Field, rejected as “media rubbish” rumours that she is thinking of quitting too. She warned that Labour would lose his Birkenhead seat if he stood there as an independent candidate.

“Frank is Labour to his core,” she said. “He is respected by all sides in Parliament and if he stood as Independent Labour at the next election would win easily.”

Speaking to the Standard ahead of a meeting with Chief Whip Nick Brown this afternoon, Mr Field insisted he will fight the next election, either as a Labour candidate with the whip restored or as Independent Labour.

Asked if he would trigger a by-election, he said he would “be thinking about that” but had not decided. “I hadn’t planned this with other Labour MPs,” he said. “I am not part of a wider group. I think Jeremy will lead us into the next election [and therefore] it becomes more urgent that we regain our position at the centre of anti-racism and as a party of tolerance.

“If we can’t do that ourselves, I do not think people are going to risk us running a government.” He called on the NEC to adopt “without quibble” the definition of anti-Semitism. Centrist MPs were furious that Mr Corbyn’s office shrugged off Mr Field’s resignation by saying he had been “looking for an excuse” to go. The Corbynite group Momentum tweeted a video clip from the comedy series The Office in which David Brent announces he is leaving but his staff do not care.

Labour MP Neil Coyle hit out: “Anyone cheerleading Frank Field’s departure is doing the work of the Tories and undermining the party and our values.

“Frank has been an MP for my entire life. He has given his life to the party and achieved real difference to people’s lives and tackled poverty. This is a massive decision. We can pretend everything is hunky-dory and tickety-boo and carry on regardless, or we can get on with tackling the problem.”

Mr Field complained Mr Corbyn’s curt message of thanks for his service was “as though I was resigning from a whist club”. He said he was also angry to have learned from TV news that Labour had dismissed complaints he had made to headquarters about the conduct of Left-wingers in his constituency.

“If they have investigated it and concluded it is all fictitious they have never told me,” he said.