Lee Anderson, an Ashfield councillor who is also centrist Labour MP Gloria de Piero’s office manager, has defected to the Tory party along with a council colleague.
Anderson – pictured below with disgraced Tory MP Ben Bradley – and his colleague have cited Momentum as their reason for the desertion.
The move serves to underline the reality of the people who have managed to embed themselves in the Labour Party at local-government level – and to expose the nonsense of the recent portrayal of removed ‘centrist’ councillors in Haringey and elsewhere as good Labour politicians who are the victim of ‘purges’.
Any Labour councillor or office-holder at any level who could even think of putting on a Tory rosette never had any place in the party at all, let alone holding office on behalf of Labour.
With the resignations yesterday at Labour’s Southside HQ, the party is at last divesting itself of some of the people who have been impeding its progress and impetus as an alternative party of government rather than helping.
Ms de Piero has been contacted for comment about the departure and her recruitment policies.
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SW have you asked Gloria de Piero for a statement on this, Will she be keeping him on as her Office Manager?
Yes we’ve asked. Presumably not but who knows. All her inside info just went to the enemy, though
Wouldn’t be surprised if blue Labour have been colluding with the Tories for some time already. At least now they no longer have access to inside info.
At last we are getting rid of some of the wreckers in the Party who have NEVER in any sense of the word been Socialists. I hope we see more of them follow in the footsteps of Anderson.
If de Piero’s staff are not employed with a condition that they remain members of the Labour Party you’d have to question her competence.
The problem with that is that the only sanction is to sack them if they leave the party and, well, he’s left. Not a lot you can do to prevent this sort of thing if someone is determined.
Not employ people with centrist politics in the first place – it’s only a short walk from one side of the middle line to the other…
They probably don’t even know anything about Momentum and have never attended a Momentum meeting. If they had, they’d have been surprised to hear the kinds of things we discuss. All very intelligent and reasonable – member participation !
its ordinary people with a passion for politics NOT a sinister SPECTRE style organisation
Good riddance to bad rubbish! He’s been a Tory at heart all along!
Anyone who feels closer to the school-meal-snatching tories than they do to Momentum, has no place in the Labour party, and never did.
But I suspect every reader here already knew that 😉
Hey SW – unrelated, but to your point. The recent documentary film on the City of London, “The Spider’s Web” has been scheduled for screening in the Thatcher Room at Parliament in Portcullis House and cancelled TWICE. There will be another attempt to reschedule for June. Link below.
https://www.facebook.com/Spiderswebfilm/photos/a.1404974016260489.1073741828.961615950596300/1656512414439980/?type=3&theater
No surprise. We’ve been called “entryists” for a long time, when the actual entryists were people like Lee and many Labour MPs who would happily put on a blue rosette if it meant they get elected. Reason these people went through the Labour route was just chance.
Fence-jumping Quislings like them are almost more despicable than the Tories themselves.
Maybe it is better to be rid of them all and see where we really stand.
I’d been hoping that seeing JC’s 30-odd-year consistently principled stand … even @bbcnormansmith this morning recognised that on screen … and the effect that was having on the polls might convince them to support him wholeheartedly through one GE at least.
The justification for Tonyism was supposed to be electability after all.
I’ve wondered whether these people huddle together in a clique of the like-minded to deceive themselves into believing there are 20 million voters desperate for Blair to rise from the dead and save them.
Now I’m starting to think Auntie May just found another billion down the back of the sofa.
The photo of the defecting councillor and Ben Bradley you state is ‘ unrelated ‘ to the current news of the defection.
It isn’t . The two of them have just been filmed together on Central News, Both of them blaming Momentum.
Yeah, ‘unrelated’ struck me as funny too 🙂
Advised by Dumb and Dumber Career Planning Ltd apparently.
Tories won’t trust jumpers any more than we would.
“Friend of Bradley” won’t take them far either.
If they could take enough voters with them in the locals to make a difference… dunno but doubtful surely?
David,
I’d be just as interested in how many of the 50 million Facebook records, Cambrige Analtica were used to influence the UK election, never mind the American one !!!
If you were a decent normal Labour person it’d be impossible to defect to the Tories they’re completely incompatible with everything you should embrace as a a Labour person.
This person was clearly never genuinely Labour at all. Fancy jumping ship to the Tories when they’re about to get hammered in local elections & lose the next General election.
Unthinkable isn’t it? Even if they were genuine centrists only idiots could fail to notice that the electorate has shifted massively to the left.
I was born Labour and I will die Labour.
When I get to the pearly gates the first thing I will want to know is who the secretary of the Labour Party’s heaven branch is as I will have a motion prepared that I will want to be included on the agenda of my first branch meeting.
All of the ‘centrists’, I suspect never held the values of the Labour Party at all in their hearts and souls.
Many of them believe that the Labour Party should be some watered down version of the Tory Party with the belief in neoliberalism.
During the 2015 GE campaign, these clowns gave out mjxed messages, offering policies even the Tories wouldn’t touch particularly on Social Security and Immigration, all to appeal to wavering Tory voters but alienating our core supporters and members.
When Jeremy stood for the leadership they attempted every dirty trick in the book to stop him, with the backing of McNichol and the resources of Head Office.
Knowing that Labour under Jeremy has become more democratic and returned to its democratic Socialist roots and that with a change of General Secretary to a leftwing one rather than a Blairite, they realised many would be held to account for their unlawful actions so jumped before being pushed out.
Too many of us on the left, the real infiltrators have been rumbled and will no doubt run off to join the Tories were they really belong. Their toxic Blairite views for too long have held the party back and harmed our country.
Now its time for deselection of the Blairites, time Chukka, Creasy, Watson, Kinnock, Phillips and Woodcock were given their marching orders to leave the Labour Party or face deselection by their CLPs.
Don’t forget Streeting , Bradshaw, Ben,Perkins,Speller,
We need to clone Chris Williamson 30 odd times should do it I recon.
TBH just one or two high profile Blarites deselected would do it and make the other arrogant MPs understand they are there to abide by the policies of the Labour Party and support it’s people , not Tory lite polices.
One assumes these two will ( Chris Baron an Ashfield Councillor , also defected ) have the decency to resign forthwith as councillors and fight for re-election as Tories .Anderson states that he wants to support the wishes of locals and do best for them and that he believes that cannot be done under the Labour policies , fine do so , BUT face the electorate under your new parties polices.
Anderson and Baron have changed their loyalties and allegiances and thus the electorate should also be given the opportunity to pass judgement on that change of allegiance .
Interesting to note Anderson seems to have been in conflict with the Local Labour Party on Ashford Council and was suspended by them for some reason .
Extract from CHAD , local paper
” A spokesman for the The Ashfield Labour Group said: “We take all claims of racism extremely seriously. Whilst Councillor Anderson’s actions may be inappropriate, we do not believe this was racially motivated. The Labour Party is proud of its record of tolerance and diversity.
Read more at: https://www.chad.co.uk/news/councillor-suspended-by-ashfield-labour-group-1-9016208
So there is history here , and it does not seem to involve Momentum , once again right wingers or Red Tories as evidenced by Anderson actions conveniently scape-goating Momentum.
Be honest with yourself Anderson , you like the” I am alright Jack stuff you ” policies of the Tories,,, for the few and NOT the many , welcome to your new home and remember to keep doffing your cap to your new superiors lord and masters Jacob Greasy Mogg ..
These neo-lib moles need to be rooted out!
The media have been peddling the idea that socalled moderates are planning to leave, obviously to embarrass the Labour Party. As we have seen after Ian Mcniclol’s resignation, it is following a similar format as one by one they resigned from the shadow cabinet.
One of our local CLPs has just drafted a motion calling on the NEC to take action on anyone who prior to these local elections endeavours to put our party in a bad light, especially if they speak out against the leadership and direction of travel we are going in. All the CLPs nationally should drafting identical motions and take action now, the longer we allow these people to dictate the agenda, the more damage they will do to our party.
There is a lot of talk since Jeremy Corbyn about an SPD mark 2 style party being formed, even over the weekend on Peston it was mooted to Chris Lesley who was cuddling up with Anna Soubry and denying they were exploring ideas of a new party, passing it off as just uniting around staying in Europe.
The Irony of it these called Moderates getting party members sanctioned for calling them Red Tories, or Blairites and where has this individual just defected to?
I think we have been silent and patient for too long, time is now ripe for action, because they are determined to bring Labour down one way or the other.
Proving he was a Tory all along, and to have Ben Bradley as his new mate after what Ben said about public sector workers, and the unemployed and whoever else is shameful. Good riddance.
A failure — abandoned a failure to go and ‘work’ for another failure; blaming the success of policies it disagrees with.
No great loss. A gain in fact. A weight off. More to follow. Plenty more will hang on to cause as much disruption as they can. They must be pushed if they refuse to jump. They are non-grata. Anathema.
Good riddance. No one who really believes in the Labour Party could ever cross over.
Seems like good riddance to me. Although I am sympathetic to those whose views genuinely change. I started off as a teenager with the SWP then have done a circle through the right and back to the left again. Life can make you reevaluate and I don’t think that should be criticised (as long as you end up a socialist anyway!)
Also as someone who over the years has often been a quite loud dissenting voice I am not in favour of squashing all dissenting voices. I think dissent is actually important and a good leader protects dissenting voices. I am currently involved in dissenting because I won’t give public endorsement to the Labour Council manifesto locally. I have a problem with supporting a manifesto that was not agreed democratically by the Assoc in breach of the express rules and which is around 95% Blairite drivel. So I don’t think dissenting is the easy choice and whilst on the whole I accept the need for endorsing collective decisions I won’t surrender my own moral bottom line to that. Perhaps that makes me a bad socialist, I am not sure.
It may be the influence on my own thinking of J.S. Mill and the idea of the minority being correct sometimes but it has also been my experience that where any dissenting voices are shut down totally then it can lead to very bad decisions and choices. That said there is in my view a difference between dissent based on a genuine moral or principled difference and those whose views are basically utter anathema to the ethos of the organisation or collective they are part of.
Jeremy was a dissenting voice on many issues over the years from Iraq to Libya to PFI and events have largely proven him right. I would not want to stop that kind of outspoken comment by Labour members. I do though think those who just attack and backstab the leadership with no seeming principled basis and whose base values are utterly different should perhaps find a new home.
I can understand defection to the Lib Dems or Greens. To some extent at some point even UKIP – as there was some left wing thought within factions of the party.
To the Tories – absolutely not.
Looks like he has always been a closet tory. Good riddance. Just wish Blair would finally admit his toryship! !
“HIP HIP HOORAY”, be gone, all you “TORY, QUISLING SYMPATHISERS”!
Blame everybody, who disagrees with your “right leaning ways”, when you know, the only person to blame is yourself, for being a “LABOUR MEMBER”, Your coming out is a blessing, no ifs no buts!