A Tameside councillor has resigned from the Labour Party after alleging years of being ‘persistently bullied’ within his own group.
Councillor Sam Gosling, who has represented Stalybridge North since 2018, has announced he is leaving the Labour group, which has a ruling majority on Tameside council.
Coun Gosling had already confirmed he would not be seeking re-election in May but he has now publicly resigned from Labour to serve as an independent councillor for the remaining five months.
In his resignation speech, Coun Gosling stated he had been left ‘unable to attend meetings due to anxiety and stress’.
Coun Gosling said the effect on his mental health meant he could not attend to deliver his resignation speech in person, and instead asked opposition member Conservative Councillor Liam Billington to read it out at Tuesday night’s meeting.
In the speech, Coun Gosling stated: “I would like to announce, with immediate effect, my resignation from the Labour group and the Labour Party and will be finishing my term as an Independent councillor.
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“Over the last four and a half years as a member of the Labour group, I have been persistently bullied and treated in a way that has had a detrimental effect on my mental and physical health. I have been left unable to attend meetings due to anxiety and stress.
“I have had various whip meetings, in an attempt to resolve these issues, sadly on each occasion the issues have been minimised and at times even trivialised.
“As a victim I should not have been blamed but this has been the reality, with the councillor who I have had cause to complain about on multiple occasions, unbelievably in my opinion, being promoted since.
“Since being elected in 2018 I have worked with some great people and made some lifelong friends, which makes this decision even harder.
“However, I can no longer, in good faith, be a member of a party or part of a group or CLP that has such little respect for mental health issues and has failed in its duty of care towards one of its members.”
As Coun Billington read out the statement at the start of the full council meeting, he was told to stop speaking and sit down by chair of council business Coun Joe Kitchen.
The meeting was temporarily adjourned and the live webcast of the meeting cut off mid-way through the statement.
Coun Yvonne Cartey, a Labour councillor for Ashton St Michael’s ward, also began banging the table throughout the delivery of the statement, telling the Tory councillor to ‘sit down and shut up’.
Coun Kitchen told Coun Billington: “That was totally uncalled for Coun Billington. You well know that it’s up to the individual concerned to make his own statement, not for you.”
There was no further reference made to Coun Gosling’s resignation during the meeting.
It changes the political make-up of the council to 47 Labour councillors, eight Conservative councillors, one Green party councillor and one independent.
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