Labour loses control of Dover council after Red Tory sees so little difference he joined the Blue

Labour has lost control of Dover District Council after the defection of right-wing councillor Charles Woodgate from Starmer’s party to the blue-Tory version. The council is now in no overall control.

Kevin Mills, the Labour group leader on the council, described the defection as ‘surprising’ and ‘frustrating’, but locals say they’re anything but surprised given Woodgate’s right-wing politics.

Woodgate, for his part, said his decision was motivated by ‘Labour’s poor national performance’, indicating it is Starmer’s unpopularity that has driven the decision and that the political difference between the two parties is so negligible that joining the ‘blue team’ Tories was the natural decision.

Blue-Tory group leader Trevor Bartlett told the BBC that he expects further defections:

We know there are some who are unhappy with the current direction of travel for Labour and I’d welcome conversations with any councillor who wanted to join the local Dover Conservatives.

Keir Starmer’s claim to want only ‘quality’ candidates has for years been used as an excuse to homogenise the politics of what now goes under a ‘Labour’ banner with those of the Tories – and to protect and promote even paedophiles, alleged paedophiles and other examples of horridness as long as they’re on the right – but he is now reaping the consequences, as many actual Labour councillors resign from the party because it is indistinguishable from the blue version – and right-wingers see no reason not to defect to the blue version if it suits them.

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