Seven leading Hastings Councillors have announced their resignation from the Labour Party to form a Hastings Independents group.

Six leading Councillors – including Cllr Paul Barnett, Leader of the Council, Cllr Maya Evans, Deputy Leader of the Council, and four Cabinet members – were joined yesterday by a seventh, Cllr Nigel Sinden.

In a press statement, the original six said: “The national Labour Party no longer provides us with the policies, the support or the focus on local government that we need given the many local issues we are committed to tackling. We will now concentrate on standing up for Hastings, to work in partnership with all those who are  passionate to drive our town forward, and our work in our communities, which is why we all became councillors.”

In a fuller personal statement, Cllr Maya Evans said: “I was proudly elected councillor for Hollington ward in 2018 and have taken great pride and honour in serving my residents. Hollington has proven to me the importance of community solidarity and how people who have been given the least in life, often give the most when it comes to helping others. I have been both humbled and inspired by residents who have twice elected me to represent them on the council, and to be the change they want to see.

“Over the last few years, it has become increasingly apparent that the Labour Party has moved away from many of its core values and principles. To woo the Tory vote the Labour Party has lost its way, leaning into right wing policies and rhetoric which has become increasingly difficult to publicly justify and support.

“I understand that Labour’s current election strategy is to mirror the Tories, and although I want rid of the current abhorrent Government, I cannot continue to volunteer hundreds of hours to an organisation which no longer represents working people, no longer stands up for the persecuted and oppressed, and no longer has a vision to radically improve life for a huge portion of society who are on low incomes, marginalised and vulnerable. I know lots of Labour supporters will feel confusion and maybe even anger at my decision; however it has now become impossible to continue with integrity.

“Locally we have been micromanaged by Westminster-centric unelected Labour Party officials who have barely visited Hastings let alone understand the town and its residents. The national Labour Party has denied Hastings’ members the right to select their own parliamentary candidate and selection of councillors; and there is now a well-established national pattern of the Labour Party blocking people of colour from leadership positions. It appears unelected Labour officials now have a very fixed idea around who is electable, sadly this tends not to favour people of colour, working class people, or local people from the community. I have personally been blocked by the Labour Party from standing as an MP and also to re-stand as a councillor, reasons given were spurious.

“Labour’s policy position on Gaza has been completely unforgiveable, from not supporting a ceasefire, to silencing politicians from speaking out, expelling an MP, unofficially instructing councillors not to attend peace marches, and enforcing a three-line whip which led to the resignation of 10 Labour MP shadow ministers. To date 18,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, 7,000 of which were children. To stay silent is to not support humanity.

“I will continue to work hard for my residents as a Hastings Independent councillor, I will continue to uphold the values and principles I was elected upon, moreover I will continue to put Hastings first, prioritising everything I do for the furtherment of the town and its residents.”

In his personal statement, Cllr John Cannan echoed these sentiments, saying the Party leadership and officials “have moved the party away from the core values that I hold dear; protecting the most vulnerable, fairness, co-operatively working for the common good, protecting the interests of workers, cherishing the NHS, green policies to fight climate change, international co-operation to name a few. This has been evidenced by a failure to support striking workers and their unions, rowing back on green investment, support for the continued privatisation of the NHS and an appalling response to the tragedy currently taking place in Gaza.

“At a local level unelected party officials have undermined Hastings Borough Council leadership over and over again. They vetoed a popular co-operation agreement with the Green Party. They have prevented popular local politicians from applying to stand as the local MP and have ‘parachuted in’ their favoured candidate. What does all this say about local democracy?”

Cllr Simon Willis, Cabinet member for Housing and Homelessness, also issued a personal statement, saying, “It is with sadness and a certain measure of anger that I have decided today to resign from the Labour Party after more than thirty years of membership. I have found it increasingly difficult to reconcile the actions of my party with its espoused principles of equity, fairness and equality.

“Colleagues have been terribly treated and I have tried again and again to ignore it because even indirectly contributing to more years of deeply corrupt and malign conservative rule is so unbearable to contemplate. I have held senior positions in Whitehall and the voluntary and private sectors and am currently a global vice president for an American tech company.  Each of these environments have been tough, challenging and competitive in their own different ways. But never have I been asked to tolerate the contempt and injustice threatened and delivered to myself and my fellow members in the Labour Party. 

“Most painfully, I do not regard it as coincidence that nearly all the local members who have been barred from running locally or nationally or who have been suspended or expelled from the party are black, brown or Jewish – and mostly women. In each case the grounds given have been starkly spurious, not just by conflating criticisms of the state of Israel with antisemitism but, in several cases, by referring to events or bans that post-dated the alleged offences by years. This is not just injustice, it is a level of Kafkaesque inhumanity that sits very oddly beside the traditional values of the party I joined.”

Hastings is the fourth council where Labour has lost its majority in recent months, after Oxford, Burnley and Norwich. The Party leadership’s refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza – increasingly in danger of putting Labour to the right of the position now espoused by the Conservative Foreign Secretary – has played a central role in all four cases. It is causing untold damage to the Party – while also being immoral and against every humanitarian principle.

Image: c/o Hastings Independents.