Yet another Newham chair resigns post, quits party over Starmer-Evans regime’s ‘Tory policies’ and Islamophobia

In the last week or so, a wave of resignations by senior elected officers has hit Newham Labour party as chair after chair of constituency and branch parties have resigned not just their position but their whole membership in disgust at the conduct of of the Keir Starmer-David Evans regime.

And on Thursday night, the chair of the borough’s Plaistow North branch also resigned in protest at Starmer’s betrayal of his ‘false promises’ – ‘outright treachery’ – to Labour members to persuade them to support him in the party’s leadership election and the Labour right’s ‘blatant Islamophobia’.

Sidra Farooq’s resignation letter to Evans explains:

Membership No: L1186516

Dear Mr David Evans, I am writing to inform you that I am resigning from the Labour Party membership as well as Chair of Plaistow North branch in protest at its abandonment of socialist policies. Along with hundreds of thousands of others around the country, I was inspired to join the party by the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. The current leader won office on false promises that he would continue to advance the radical policies of his predecessor – promises that he has flagrantly betrayed, even to the point of personally blocking his readmission to membership of the Parliamentary Labour Party. This is outright treachery.

Given that Newham has a directly elected Labour Mayor, a 100% Labour council, and two Labour MPs with massive majorities, I am appalled to witness Tory policies being imposed, including the suspension of both CLPs; the expulsions of local activists; the imposition of unfair parking charges; the proposed closures of community amenities like Stratford Circus, the City Farm, Durning Hall, etc; the gentrification of the borough with the building of luxury flats for billionaires at prices way out of reach of working-class residents; and swingeing cuts in local services. I have also witnessed blatant Islamophobia among right-wing elements in the party.

For these reasons I totally support the resignations of the respective chairs of West Ham and East Ham CLPs along with several other members and office holders and am proud to join their ranks.

Sidra Farooq
Chair Plaistow North Branch

Ironically, this condemnation of his broken promises and betrayals comes on the same day Starmer spoke at the ‘trust barometer’ launched by the PR firm employed to rehabilitate the reputation of Rupert Murdoch after the phone-hacking scandal, yet another gross insult to Liverpool, the Hillsborough victims and their families and to the vulnerable people of this country demonised for decades by the S*n rag.

Not much will be left on the ground for Starmer’s Labour by the time this is over – an outcome entirely fitting to the hollowing-out of the party by a Labour right so ideologically entrenched and simultaneously insecure that it cannot tolerate the idea of fair treatment of the left members who formed the majority of the membership and the backbone of the party’s campaigning.

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