The councillor claims the Labour Occasion now not serves the “bizarre individuals” it was elected to characterize
A Welsh Labour councillor has stepped down from the social gathering and issued a scathing criticism about its management. Helen Cunningham, who has served as Labour councillor for the Llanhilleth ward since 2022 and likewise held a deputy management position on Blaenau Gwent council, claimed the social gathering now not serves the “bizarre individuals” it was elected to characterize.
In her strongly worded resignation letter, Ms Cunningham mentioned she has “grown more and more uneasy with the management” of the Labour Occasion. Her resignation got here simply hours after a outstanding Labour backbencher accused the social gathering chief Keir Starmer of humiliating main Welsh politicians amid rising anger on the Prime Minister within the Senedd.
Blaenau Gwent MS Alun Davies criticised Mr Starmer in a Senedd debate after the Prime Minister was accused of rolling again devolution by immediately funding native authorities in Wales in devolved areas.
Mr Davies mentioned: “It isn’t honest that Wales is handled the way in which it’s, and it isn’t honest that Welsh Ministers are humiliated—and we noticed it this afternoon—having to run to catch up as a result of they do not know what’s being mentioned from London.
“It is not honest that Welsh Ministers have to attempt to clarify that rail funding is honest when it is self-evidently not, that Barnett is honest when it’s self-evidently not.
“That’s not honest. It isn’t honest for this Authorities, it isn’t honest for this Parliament, however extra importantly it isn’t honest for our individuals. So, we are going to marketing campaign for equality over the approaching months. We’ll marketing campaign for the equality of individuals, as we have performed within the Labour motion by way of our historical past.”
In her resignation letter, councillor Cunningham accused the Labour Occasion of getting a scarcity of imaginative and prescient and values, which she says does her constituents a disservice. For our free every day briefing on the most important points going through the nation signal as much as the Wales Issues publication right here.
Ms Cunningham additionally stood for the Labour Occasion within the 2021 Senedd election.
Her assertion mentioned: “I’ve chosen to resign my membership of the Labour Occasion, having grown more and more uneasy with the management. A scarcity of imaginative and prescient, values and credible democratic processes deeply troubles me. It does the individuals of Blaenau Gwent a disservice.
“Makes an attempt to forge a clear, democratic and political path are stifled. The undermining of mine and different councillors efforts to carry our council to the best requirements, together with for flooded communities, to fight poverty, and for future generations has been a sobering spectacle. So too the oversight and allocation of alternative EU and regional growth funds, the downplaying of native actions of the far proper and the orchestrated silence on genocide in Gaza, the place the worth of pension funds apparently instructions higher significance than Palestinian lives.
“A poisonous tradition and insupportable working situations not solely go unchecked, however are actively inspired.
“The UK Labour Occasion’s lurch to the correct, led by factionalists intent on energy, however with no coherent plan to wield it for the betterment of bizarre individuals’s lives, has dedicated the best betrayal of a era; abandoning these it was based to serve and dealing towards their pursuits.
“I’ve the utmost respect for a lot of Labour councillors I’ve had the privilege of working with. Their camaraderie has been invaluable. I’m grateful to many others from the broader Labour motion in Wales for his or her help and beneficiant recommendation.”
“I’ll proceed to serve the individuals of the Llanhilleth Ward on the idea of the socialist values I maintain and was elected on.”
The Welsh Inexperienced Occasion additionally introduced that one other Blaenau Gwent Labour councillor, Sonia Behr, had defected to it. Councillor Behr, who represents Nantyglo, mentioned: “I now not consider Labour is keen to confront the size of inequality going through the UK.”
The criticism of the Labour Occasion and its management comes every week after it was revealed that eleven backbench Labour MSs, greater than a 3rd of MSs representing Labour within the Senedd, mentioned the UK Authorities just isn’t solely failing to ship on guarantees at hand extra powers to Wales however is “rolling again” on what’s already devolved by way of its coverage on post-EU funding for communities.
