LABOUR IMPLOSION: Councillors quitting up and down the country!

Right, so following the local elections, which were underwhelming for Labour, clearly a party that needs to make inroads into the Tory vote, yet saw them lose three fifths of that vote split away to the Lib Dems, the Green Party and to Independents. They underachieved despite claims and in no small part the main issue being cited is of course the Party’s indefensible position on Israel and Gaza, but as much as that in and of itself has been enough of a subject of disgust and dismay for many Labour members and ordinary voters, it can also be seen as symptomatic of a greater Labour crisis, which is that there is a complete moral vacuum at the top of the party. It is run by awful people, with awful beliefs, who promise little but Tory lite tinkering in exchange for your vote and demand through absolute authoritarianism that those elected under the Labour banner, do exactly as they’re told or else. It is that that has led to no fewer than nine Councillors having quit the party since the local elections, May turning into a month of Labour implosion, as nothing changes, not the stance on Israel and Gaza and certainly not the diktat being handed down. More councillors will consistently bleed away, so if they can’t stand Labour any more, active representatives of the Party, why would you still want to vote for them, for them to carry on doing the same, but able to do it to you and do it nationwide?
Right, so Labour is a moral vacuum and it is driving not just voters and lay members of the party away, but increasingly we’re seeing local Labour representation disappearing too and to lose no fewer than nine councillors since the local elections – and these are just the ones I’ve been made aware of, such things don’t always make the news – but those that have, have been excoriating in their reasoning and the party reaction hasn’t always been conducive to proving them wrong, if anything in some instances doubling down just proves the councillor in question right.
Kirklees Council in West Yorkshire has seen Labour crumbling for some time, the latest Councillor to abandon Labour there actually being the fifth to do so just this year and having held local elections this year, it’s not a good sign that within 2 weeks of being elected as a Labour councillor, Musarrat Khan has quit the party, citing Keir Starmer’s continued lack of an apology for his ongoing stance on Gaza, the inference being made in a BBC article covering the resignation of Cllr Khan being that this comes down to Keir Starmer’s watered down amendment to the SNP permanent ceasefire motion called in February, that stitch up, the allegations of leaning on Speaker Lindsay Hoyle and his Labour amendment being called, when it went against standing orders to do so, ended up passing, simply calling for a ceasefire that lasts, the permanence of it removed, but the ability for Labour MPs to say they called for a ceasefire is now there, ignominious as that might be. Cllr Khan also cited the welcoming in to the party of Natalie Elphicke as another reason she felt she could not continue to represent the party, and frankly I don’t blame her – when a hard right Tory is welcome, but the likes of Diane Abbott look set to be replaced because their suspension for stupid factional reasoning will never be lifted. Socialists out, hard right Tories in? That isn’t the Labour Party and the Starmer faction will never relinquish control again so it will never functionally change from now being a Tory lite obstacle to change desperately needed in this country. Labour’s response was to say that Cllr Khan had been administratively suspended two days prior to her resignation, implying she was jumping before pushed, but that was just 8 days after she was elected to Kirklees Council. She was a valid candidate on the 2nd May, but by the 10th she was suspended? Why is that then? No comment. Undermining Labour’s position all the more on that score, is the fact Khan was on the shortlist to replace outgoing Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman, so not only was she in good standing, she was highly rated too. Labour lost control of Kirklees Council in this years locals, another example of an underwhelming performance, now they’ve lost another councillor there already, and it seems rank dishonesty, more Tory MPs being welcomed into the Labour Party and Gaza are to blame for this, all amounting to more examples of the moral vacuum in Starmer’s Labour.
Literally the day after Khan’s resignation, 5 Labour Councillors quit in North Wales, Flintshire and again this comes down to moral vacuum, though not Gaza for a change in this case.
We’ve become accustomed to Tories in government certainly, having been found to have breached the rules on multiple occasions, probably the most corrupt British government we’ve seen in our lifetimes, where once upon a time when you got found out, you were expected to tender your resignation. Now it doesn’t happen, they get forgiven and carry on. That sadly sends a message out to the country that this is suitable conduct and it seems that has extended to local levels too and not unique to the Tories when Labour officials are doing it as well.
Now this is a staunchly Labour controlled council, no local elections here this year, however it is still the beginning of the administrative year and therefore a new Council leader had to be elected, but with accusations by some within his own party, an unnamed Labour cabinet member was accused of misleading backbenchers, failing to correct the record and demands were made that they resign. The lead accusing councillor, Cllr Alasdair Ibbotson, said:
‘One can get away with quite a lot in politics, but it’s a hard and fast rule, whether in Parliament, the Senedd or council chamber that one does not lie to or mislead the chamber and one does not lie to or mislead a committee.
Where such a thing occurs, there is a strong principle and convention in this country that where a cabinet member or minister does the same, they must resign from that position.
These are issues of fundamental honour. Unfortunately, earlier this year, a cabinet member, and it could be accidentally or inadvertently, misled a committee. He has chosen not to correct the record and not to stand down.
The reason this convention exists is that councillors can only have faith in what they’re told by those in leadership positions when there are consequences where wrong information is provided.’
The result of this was, when it came down to it, Ibbotson and 4 others felt they couldn’t in good conscience stand by their party and so for the sake of this chronic individual remaining in his post, whoever it is, Labour lost 5 of their councillors over this, crossing the floor and forming a new independent group. Moral vacuum, it is spreading, it isn’t just at parliamentary level this Starmer style of politics has become an infestation, a disease, but also at local level too.
And then there is the latest example, as three more councillors have quit just this week, in Hackney, Diane Abbotts patch and they chose to do it in the best most hard-hitting way they could have done, by announcing their resignations from the Labour Party on Hackney Borough Council, by going to the Hackney Divestment Camp set up in the Borough to make their announcement, and announce that they were setting up a new Independent socialist group on the council, the Hackney Independent Socialists, citing Starmer’s U-turns on policy areas, including trade union freedoms, his ‘Sir Kid Starver’ policy of keeping the two child benefit cap, his support for more NHS privatisation and his treatment of their local MP, Diane Abbott, but also heavily cited Gaza in their thinking and that not only do Starmer’s Labour continue to support arming Israel, but that they do so even as the regime moves into Rafah, with all the horrors we’ve borne witness to already, nothing moves the party position on this.
Labour’s response to these three quitting the party though and standing as independents? They’ve had the brass neck to tell them to resign their seats and contest by-elections! So, when can we expect the three Tory MPs that have defected to Labour to do that then? Christian Wakeford is 2 years overdue now, Dan Poulter and Natalie Elphicke though, come on, where are the demands for a by-election there then? Absolute rinsing hypocrisy and zero acknowledgement of the reasons these councillors have felt the need to leave. Are they just more fleas being shaken off? That is how Labour like to refer to people walking away from the party these days isn’t it?
Meanwhile Starmer announced his first steps of a Labour government this week, six fixes as he also called them, how these fixes are more like stitch ups and first steps makes him sound like a toddler, frankly a toddler probably has more political aptitude and is definitely more honest about it too. Find out about the latest relaunch of Starmer’s leadership, which is what it really was here in this video recommendation and I’ll hopefully catch on the next vid. Cheers folks.