Sandwell councillor Bill Gavan applies to join Conservatives
Sandwell councillor Bill Gavan, who acted as former MP Tom Watson’s driver, has applied to join the Conservatives. If his application is accepted when he meets Tory officials next week, his defection will gift the Tories their first councillor in the borough in five years.
Gavan was reported last May to have stood up in the annual general meeting of Sandwell Council’s Labour group to announce:
I resign from the group and the Labour Party and will be joining the opposition and I invite others to join me.
However, he subsequently denied that he had resigned.
Gavan mentioned the deselection by the Labour Party of “many lovely councillors” among the reasons for his application to the Tories. Councillors who were deselected or expelled from the party in Sandwell included:
- Bill Cherrington, Caroline White and Julie Webb, who had supported a rival candidate in local elections. Cherrington subsequently joined the Brexit party
- former council leader Steve Eling, who resigned after ‘serious’ complaints
- David Hosell, who called Sandwell’s female council leader a ‘gutter wench’ shortly after Tom Watson defended him
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At least he’s honest.
There’s a few he should have taken with him …
He must be well off then. On a good screw…
Shame, personal friend of mine but his politics were always suspect.
I wish he could have taken Twatson with him then at least rent a quote to the toilet paper would be out of the Labour party and at home amongst the torys.were he belongs.
Oh what a surprise. You could knock me down with a feather! LOL
I couldn’t understand why this was relevant from the headline… who knew he was also a councillor? Driver/councillor that’s a new job description to me and how did he manage both rolls, especially the councillor job… who cares, just strikes me as odd.
I can shrug my shoulders at a lot of this sort of stuff, but joining the Tories of today is really way beyond the pale for anyone who has actually been committed to the Labour Party and who possesses even a modicum of integrity.
An illustration of the deceptive nature of those ‘Labour Heartlands’ – actually replete with lots of potential Tories in waiting – as the doorstep has always indicated.
Clearly a far more principled man than most of us.
To have so many principles you can choose to be a socialist or a conservative must be a blessing in terms of job opportunities.
“These are my principles. If you don’t like them I have others.” – Groucho Marx
Alternatively,
“Integrity. It’s a wonderful thing and I’m willing to pay for it” – Peter Cook
Funny old world…especially in that constituency,where old codgers drive 🚗mr rent a quote round the country slagging off the Labour party and socialism.No wonder the knackered old man defected after having been exploited by the deputy leader of the Labour party.Maybe the poor old codger can make up the shortfall in his wages by taking Watson to court for “elderly abuse” a very serious crime exploiting an elderly person in such a way that he was forced into driving Watson around to make ends meet in Tory Britain…..funny old world?
What are the chances of a negotiated realignment, doesn’t contravene competition law, would be more Mafia style,
We keep the name, Unite and JVL and 75% members
Bottom line they are killing us, so off they must fuck,
The shift to the far right has already taken place with Tory/Brexit/National White Peoples party
Spivs and thieves in the City will do the rest