Onchan MHK Julie Edge has quit the Liberal Vannin party.

She announced her resignation to constituents on her Facebook page today saying she felt she had to do so in order to continue her duties as an MHK for Onchan.

Ms Edge joins Bill Malarkey in defecting from LibVan after being elected to the Keys.

Her resignation leaves party leader Kate Beecroft, Health Minister and Douglas South MHK, and Ramsey MHK Lawrie Hooper as the two remaining LibVan members in the House of Keys.

In a letter to the party chairman tendering her resignation with ’immediate effect’, Ms Edge said she had ’thought long and hard’ about the decision.

She said a number of situations had arisen that had stopped her representing the people of Onchan.

Being told by Health Minister Mrs Beecroft that she could not ask her questions in the House of Keys was ’the final straw’, she wrote.

’I have been put in an impossible position by the party leader with her instruction that I cannot ask questions on Department of Health and Social Care issues that the people of Onchan request me to ask,’ she said.

Ms Edge said she owed it to the electorate to be able to fully represent them without restriction and therefore had no choice but to resign.

’It is unfortunate that I have been put in this position. However, my constituents come first.’

Mrs Beecroft denied that she had prevented Ms Edge from asking questions.

’That’s not accurate,’ she said. ’Personally, I’m disappointed. I think she’s got her own agenda. Obviously, we will have a meeting of the executive and decide the party’s response.’

Lawrie Hooper has called for his former LibVan colleague to stand down and face a by-election.

He posted on her Facebook page: ’Julie that’s not true at all and you know it - there are no restrictions on your questioning whatsoever. Please remove the inaccurate posting.

’Can you please confirm that you will be standing down and facing a by-election as an independent candidate?’

Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas stood as a LibVan candidate in Douglas West in the 2011 general election but was subsequently elected as an independent in a 2013 by-election in that constituency.

In 2012 Onchan MHK Zac Hall was suspended from LibVan.