{"id":206421,"date":"2025-01-02T14:45:13","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T14:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/02\/twenty-broxtowe-councillors-quit-labour-over-starmers-leadership\/"},"modified":"2025-01-02T14:45:13","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T14:45:13","slug":"twenty-broxtowe-councillors-quit-labour-over-starmers-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/02\/twenty-broxtowe-councillors-quit-labour-over-starmers-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Twenty Broxtowe councillors quit Labour over Starmer’s leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"BBCBBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The group of councillors plan to establish a new independent party<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Twenty councillors have quit Labour in protest at the party’s direction under Sir Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n

The councillors – from Broxtowe Borough Council in Nottinghamshire – claimed the party had “abandoned traditional Labour values” and criticised policies such as cutting the winter fuel allowance for some pensioners.<\/a><\/p>\n

Council leader Milan Radulovic, who had been a party member for 42 years, is among those walking away from Labour.<\/p>\n

A local Labour spokesperson said the decision by some councillors to sit as independent 18 months after they were elected was “incredibly disappointing”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The councillors said they would establish a new independent party, planning to run the borough council as a minority administration in the short term, but may need support from existing independents in order to keep control.<\/p>\n

They claimed 10 of them had been blocked from standing for Labour at upcoming local elections for Nottinghamshire County Council after questioning the winter fuel policy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"PAPA Media<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The councillors walking away said it was not the Labour Party Sir Keir Starmer promised<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Radulovic said of the move that he was “deeply saddened” but had been placed in an “impossible position”.<\/p>\n

“I cannot support and will not support another centrist government intent on destroying local democracy and dictating national policy from a high pedestal,” he said.<\/p>\n

He also criticised plans to reorganise local government, which could see district and borough councils scrapped.<\/a><\/p>\n

“I believe the concentration of power in the hands of fewer people and the abolition of local democracy through the current proposals of super councils is nothing short of a dictatorship, where local elected members, local people, local residents will have no say over the type and level of service provided in their area,” he said.<\/p>\n

The group said 100 local grassroots members had also left Labour.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Broxtowe<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Milan Radulovic was a Labour member for 42 years but said he was in an impossible position<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Broxtowe Labour Councillors said: “It is incredibly disappointing that some Broxtowe councillors have decided to leave the Labour Party and sit as independents when they were elected on a Labour ticket just over 18 months ago.<\/p>\n

“These defections have no effect on the commitment of the remaining Labour Councillors in serving our residents.<\/p>\n

“We, together with our Labour colleagues including MPs Juliet Campbell and Alex Norris, will continue to work to make Broxtowe a healthier, greener, safer and more prosperous place for everyone as change begins under this Labour government.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Analysis<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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By Hugh Casswell, Political reporter, BBC Nottingham<\/b><\/p>\n

Relations between Broxtowe Labour and the national party have been frosty for some time.<\/p>\n

A row broke out in 2023 over the process to select a parliamentary candidate for the area<\/a>, and Milan Radulovic has never been shy about speaking out.<\/p>\n

Doubtless, some of what has prompted these defections is both parochial and personal in nature.<\/p>\n

But the party may be more concerned that grassroots criticism of government policy extends well beyond the borders of Broxtowe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BBC The group of councillors plan to establish a new independent party Twenty councillors have quit Labour in protest at the party’s direction under Sir Keir Starmer. The councillors – from Broxtowe Borough Council in Nottinghamshire – claimed the party had “abandoned traditional Labour values” and criticised policies such as cutting the winter fuel allowance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[162671,21080,843,2122,2634,27876,21078],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206421"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206423,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206421\/revisions\/206423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}