"What I'm really concentrating and focused on, actually, is winning Green councils and Green MPs for the very first time, rather than defectors. So defectors are very welcome. "But also I'm absolutely confident that we now have a platform, both nationally and certainly in London, where we can and will win seats starting from scratch in some of these areas."
"We always knew that being a party of government would put the principles and values of the party to the test, but we've watched as on every issue this Government goes further away from the founding Labour Party principles of democracy, social justice and equality. We have a huge amount of respect for many of our hard-working Labour colleagues and party members in Brent, but we don't feel that the party represents the values that we hold any longer."
Five London Labour councillors defected to the Green Party led by Zack Polanski. The defectors include former whip Iman Ahmadi-Moghaddam, former cabinet member Harbi Farah, Mary Mitchell, Tony Ethapemi and Erica Gbajumo. Four of the councillors had been deselected earlier as Labour candidates after being judged below the required standards, according to a Labour spokesperson. Polanski said Labour is "broken" and vowed the Greens are ready to "bury" Labour while prioritising winning Green councils and MPs. Green membership has grown from about 70,000 to over 180,000. Labour criticised Polanski's approach as lowering candidate standards.
Read at London Business News | Londonlovesbusiness.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]