The BLISTERING Labour Resignation Speech You Have To Hear!

Right, so I’ve covered a number of prominent Labour Party resignations over the last few weeks, councillors around the country, several with decades of membership under their belt and even a member of Labour’s National Executive Committee, but for a Labour Councillor to give what was a heart-felt, yet equally damning appraisal of his own Party both nationally and locally on his own council to the full council meeting, following a discussion on social security cuts and austerity, a motion he had brought to the table and the Council had decided to water down, to bow their heads in effect and acquiesce to the cruelty of the Starmer regime on such matters and for him to resign on the spot after saying his piece as a consequence of all of that, standing up for ordinary working class people, standing against austerity and cuts, standing up for what are Labour values that this Labour Party no longer believe in is one of the most poignant critiques of unforgivably weak governance at both national and local level of the Labour Party I’ve seen in a long time and the chap in question didn’t even need to raise his voice to make his points felt. So take a look at now independent Councillor Jakob Williamson’s evisceration of what passes for the Labour Party, saying what so many of us now feel.
Right, so that was Councillor Jakob Williamson’s resignation from the Labour group on Wakefield Council, along with his resignation from the Labour Party itself and it was damning wasn’t it? A council that cannot think for itself, the amendments apparently having to be approved by the central party before going forwards, so in a motion on welfare cuts and austerity at the hands of a party leadership that should be naturally opposed to such things, yet under Keir Starmer embraces it, they have to approve such matters, approve criticisms of themselves coming from local council groups and local parties, local representatives, in what is that democracy when only party approved complaints are allowed to stand effectively?
And wasn’t it telling when the mayor interrupted him to demand that Williamson speak to the amendment, rather than listen to any of the points he was trying to make? He was speaking to the amendment in my mind, how watered down and pathetic it had been made, how it had to be vetted first by the control freaks in the Labour Party up the line first, but not paying the slightest bit of attention to the valid points about Labour existentialism frankly that Jakob Williamson was making. It made me smile actually that he continued right where he left off, not being cowed or defeated in the slightest and actually I think it might have been the last straw for him, since he said that he didn’t go into that meeting with the intention to resign and yet at the end of his oratory, his condemnation of Labour going against everything he joined the party for, that is exactly what he did and the applause he got from the opposition was absolutely deserved after that.
For full context however, it wasn’t just off the back of this meeting that matters had come to a head for Cllr Williamson. Back at the beginning of March Wakefield’s Labour run Council put forward a budget that was austerity through and through. Having campaigned for an end to austerity, for the change in this country that Keir Starmer swore blind he represented at the General Election, no more council tax rises, the Council jumped to Starmer’s tune it seems and put forward more of the same, as if the Tories had never left power last year, something we’ve all become more familiar with, as the cost of living crisis bites, Labour choosing to target pensioners and the disabled, rather than taxing wealth, taxing the rich and still vehemently refusing to do so even now as Rachel Reeves accounting apparently implodes once more. Water and energy bills soaring, the refusal to lift the two child benefit cap, and with Williamson representing what is in his words a quite deprived area, a working class area, where incomes are low and reliance on benefits to top up wages to get by is the norm, through no fault of the people affected at all, even more expense inflicting even more poverty was not something Williamson was going to support, so come the austerity budget of Wakefield Council on the 5th March, he voted against it and, together with criticisms he had made at a budgetary meeting aimed at the national party two days previously, got himself suspended from the party as a result. Putting his residents first is a punishable offence in Starmer’s Labour. Party first or else it seems. So this was the position Williamson was in going into that most recent meeting, arguably he may have had one foot out of the door so to speak already, but the ongoing feebleness of the Labour group afraid to speak out independently in the interests of residents in the face of yet more brutal austerity was the last straw. Following that video footage, Jakob Williamson put out a statement for his residents, making clear why he took the action he did:
‘I resigned the Labour whip at last week's Wakefield Council meeting!
Whilst speaking in a debate on austerity and welfare cuts, it became clear that the Labour Group are unwilling to genuinely represent the needs and interests of our district.
Instead of supporting my motion in demanding an end to austerity, the reversal of all welfare cuts and the proper financing of local government, among other things. Labour Councillors overwhelmingly responded by watering it down, defending or excusing the government's actions and deflecting back onto the Tories and Lib Dems.
Yes, criticism of the Tories and Lib Dems is warranted for their involvement in austerity over the last 14 years but, it is a Labour government that is doing it now. If we are not prepared to oppose this government with the same veracity as we did the Tories, then we are nothing more than hypocrites.
Putting the current welfare cuts into perspective, they are the fifth largest tranche of cuts since 2010 and the largest since 2015. Essentially meaning that this so-called Labour Government are cutting benefits at higher levels than 9 of the 14 years the Tories were in office.
Additionally, the current disability cuts go further than the Tories were prepared to go to in 2018, as they are 3x larger than the cuts that Ian Duncan Smith resigned over.
Whilst there have been other issues within the Labour Group and the wider Party that have influenced my decision, this debate was the final straw. The Labour Group are unwilling to call the government's cuts for what they really are - a continuation of Tory austerity.
I was already suspended from the party for voting against the Labour Group's austerity budget which, reduced Council services by £29m, cut 250 jobs and raised Council tax by the maximum.
I cannot continue to legitimise a Labour Cabinet which lied about the scale of the job cuts, and tried to deceive residents when u-turning on cuts to libraries and the garden waste services.
I cannot remain a member of a political group that conducts itself in this manner, and is willing to stand by whilst the government betrays its own values and the working-class communities it is supposed to represent.
Equally, I cannot continue to legitimise a Labour government that has reneged on its manifesto commitments and is attacking the poorest and most vulnerable in our society. This is not the Labour Party I joined, and it is not the Labour Party people voted for.
Our district deserves better than Councillors who are putting their own positions and allowances over the needs of our residents. We deserve politicians, at all levels of government, who are honest and will genuinely represent our interests.
This decision is not me leaving the Labour Party - it is the Labour Party that has left us. They do not represent working-class communities anymore and I could not look my residents in the eye if I were to continue legitimising the disgraceful choices of the Labour Party.
Just to be clear, whilst I have resigned the Labour whip, I will continue to represent Hemsworth, Kinsley, Fitzwilliam, South Hiendley & Felkirk. It will just be from the opposition benches, as an Independent Councillor.
Solidarity,
Jake’
Solidarity to you too Cllr Williamson, Labour loses another principled and decent representative and deservedly so. Labour’s decay under Starmer just continues unabated, control freakery and diktat over the needs of ordinary working class people with out any change or deviation from that in sight.
For more on the most recent resignations besieging Starmer’s mockery of a Labour Party as we head into the last week before local elections check out this video recommendation here as your suggested next watch. Please do also hit like, share and subscribe if you haven’t already done so, so as to ensure you don’t miss out on all new content published daily, as well as supporting the channel at the same time, which is very much appreciated, holding power to account for ordinary working class people and I will hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.