A respected former MP has quit Labour in disgust after 44 years – claiming the party had 'lost its soul'.

Terry Lewis represented Worsley from 1983 until he retired at the 2005 election.

Now he has torn up his membership card, claiming the Labour party had missed an historic opportunity to repair the 'damage' of Conservative governments.

“I didn't send in a letter of resignation because I would have needed a publisher,” he told the M.E.N. “It would have been the size of a small novel.

Mr Lewis said when Labour won in 1997 he expected a sea-change in policy.

Instead, he said, the country had seen 'more Thatcherite policies for 13 years'.

And he predicted Labour would be routed by the Conservatives 'like a dose of salts' at the election expected in May.

Mr Lewis, who was replaced in 2005 by Barbara Keeley, served Labour as a councillor and party worker before winning a seat in Parliament.

Formidable

He carved a formidable reputation as an outspoken hard-working backbencher who was not afraid to vote against his own government.

Mr Lewis, 75, championed the anti-fox hunting lobby and voted against the Iraq war.

He told the M.E.N the expenses scandal – which engulfed all the major parties – had been the 'final straw' in his disillusionment with politics.

“What some MPs have been up to is an absolute disgrace,” he said. “In general terms all the people who have been found to be abusing the system deserve to be removed from office.”

Mr Lewis also took a swipe at Labour-controlled councils for failing to challenge Labour's right-wards drift.

“There has not been a word of criticism of the government,” he said. “The government has made it a profitable exercise being a councillor. You have councillors with no real responsibility due to cabinet-style councils, who are picking up £8,000 a year.

“Then some of them sit on other boards and authorities and picking up £30,000 or £40,000 a year – they are not going to criticise the government.”