Sefton councillors Sean Halsall and Natasha Carlin are the latest representative s to resign from Keir Starmer’s modernised Labour Party.

In a statement on twitter, Cllr Halsall said: “After first being elected as a councillor in 2019 on a platform of genuinely transformative policies that would have given people the economic security so gravely needed, the Labour Party of 2024 feels a world away from the hope and genuine change that inspired me to campaign for the party.”

He went on: “I did not come into politics to support the two child benefit cap. I didn’t enter politics to threaten disabled people into exploitative work. I didn’t come to this political party to fight to protect the status quo of working class people being punished for the mistakes of the richest people in society.”

He also specifically referenced the leadership’s stance on the Middle East conflict in his statement, criticising the “party line that has stopped any expression on the conflict in Gaza.”

Cllr Carlin also released a statement explaining her reasons for resigning from the Labour Party. She said: “I no longer feel the Labour Party represents the morals and principles that I live by, and I do not recognise the party as the one I joined in 2016.”

She added: “I didn’t come into politics to support a political party that has promised to carry on the fiscal policies of the Tory Party. I didn’t join the Labour Party to see the continuation of welfare austerity.”

She also referenced the Israeli war on Gaza, saying, “I didn’t join politics to see inaction over Palestine.” Earlier this year, she proposed a motion to Sefton Council’s full cabinet meeting calling for an immediate end to fighting in the Middle East and condemning “the murder of innocent civilians, the taking of hostages and the subsequent death and destruction in Gaza.” The motion was subsequently withdrawn and not voted on.

Both councillors will continue to sit as independents. Over 70 Labour councillors have now quit the party, with the leadership’s position on Gaza being a central factor. Labour has now lost its majority on at least five councils as a result of these resignations.

Meanwhile, the quality of Labour’s parliamentary candidates once more comes under scrutiny as Scottish Labour were forced to suspend General Election candidate Wilma Brown after she shared “dozens” of offensive tweets on social media.

The Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy candidate was found to have liked and reposted a swathe of “racist, Islamophobic and transphobic” posts on Twitter/X on Tuesday. A Momentum spokesperson said: “There are shocking, unacceptable comments and it is astonishing the candidate was ever selected.”

Former Labour Party Executive Director of Policy and  Research Andrew Fisher tweeted: “More evidence Labour only does ‘due diligence’ for left wing candidates … (who can be blocked for liking tweets by Caroline Lucas). Vile racism and bigotry exposed, but apparently never noticed previously?”

This latest suspension follows Labour’s abandonment of its candidate in the Rochdale by-election after his comments about Jewish people. The seat was subsequently won by George Galloway.

Momentum is calling for an independent investigation into Labour’s Parliamentary selections. They argue that factional loyalty has been substituted for due diligence in the selection of the Party’s candidates.

They point to the vast difference in the treatment, for example, of Diane Abbott, who made a single wrong statement in the media for which she quickly apologised but who remains without the Labour whip nearly a year later, and the leniency extended to pro-leadership candidates.

Darren Rodwell, for example, remains a Labour candidate in Barking, East London, despite multiple scandals, including reportedly hanging political material from people’s gravestones and making offensive comments at a Black History month event in 2022.

Labour’s parliamentary selections have been the subject of further controversy after the Metropolitan Police launched an investigation into alleged tampering with Party membership lists in Croydon and a press report claimed that other selection contests may have been systematically rigged by supporters of Keir Starmer.

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Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/190916320@N06/53240561562 Creator: Labour Party | Credit: Labour Party Copyright: Labour Party . Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic