Wirral Cllrs Yvonne Nolan and Sue Mahoney deselected by Labour – after demonstrating against deselection of Nolan’s carer for not attending enough out-of-ward door-knocking sessions. Nolan and her carer have been replaced by imposed right-wingers
The deputy leader of Wirral Council, Rock Ferry councillor Yvonne Nolan, will stand against Labour as an independent after the party deselected her for protesting against the deselection of her partner and carer, Cllr Chris Davies, because the party decided his caring responsibilities should not prevent him attending high numbers of campaigning sessions in other wards. Cllr Nolan needs a wheelchair after suffering a stroke shortly after her election in 2019.
After deselecting Davies, the party imposed Tony Murphy on the branch party as the new candidate. Murphy is the husband of Sheila Murphy, the right-winger imposed on the Liverpool party as ‘Liverpool officer’ despite campaigning for the discredited and now-defunct ‘Funny Tinge party’ of Tory and right-wing Labour defectors, Change UK.
Nolan and Birkenhead Labour candidate Sue Mahoney protested against the party’s discrimination against disabled people and their carers – and were then interrogated by party functionaries who claimed they, rather than Labour’s discrimination, had brought the party into disrepute.
They were then told that they had been deselected as candidates, despite Nolan’s strong record as deputy and acting leader and the short time remaining until polling day – and the party immediately parachuted the right-wing CEO of the local Chamber of Commerce in as her replacement. She has announced today that she will stand as an independent.
Cllr Davies told Skwawkbox:
This stinks. Not only have they discriminated against a disabled person and her carer – protected categories under equalities law – by not taking into account the reasonableness of their demands for additional campaigning, but they’ve done so in order to replace the deputy council leader with a business figure, who I’m sure won’t take long to set eyes on the council leadership.
Despite the stroke, Yvonne ran the council for a long time and this is how they thank her. But there are so many ex-members here that are disgusted with how the party is behaving that there’ll be lots of people out knocking on doors for her between now and the vote.
Skwawkbox understands that ‘Liverpool officer’ Sheila Murphy has been campaigning in Wirral, despite not doing so being a condition of her readmittance into the party because of her attacks on Wirral Labour members shortly before leaving to support ‘Tinge‘.
The treatment of Yvonne Nolan is yet another episode in the appalling discriminatory and anti-democratic record of the Labour party under Keir Starmer, including seizing control of selections in various places including Liverpool, just across the Mersey from Wirral.
Those interested in campaigning for Cllr Nolan can find her contact information here.
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