A COUNCILLOR who quit Labour along with 19 others because of their direction under Keir Starmer said it became too difficult to “defend the indefensible” as he hit out at the party’s position on Gaza, Waspi and the Winter Fuel Payment.
Greg Marshall was part of a group of 20 elected members on Broxtowe Borough Council in Nottinghamshire who ditched their Labour membership en masse last week as the party lost control of the local authority.
The group launched a fierce attack on Starmer’s leadership citing two years of “bitterness and betrayal” and accusing the party of having “abandoned traditional Labour values”.
Deputy council leader Marshall, 51, said he and his family had always been heavily involved with the Labour Party. He told how ex-Labour chancellor Denis Healey stayed at his home when he was just 10 as part of the campaign for Michael Foot in 1983.
His whole adult life he had been a Labour member and the entire group of 20 councillors had 250 years of party membership between them.
But Marshall said while it had been a “really tough” decision for the group, national policy positions on Waspi, Gaza and the Winter Fuel Payment meant they were left with no choice but to quit.
“It became increasingly hard to defend the indefensible,” he told The National.
“There’s been no knee-jerk reaction to this, people have thought long and hard about this. But no longer could we stay supporting the Labour Party locally with the direction its heading in.
“I cannot overstate enough that it’s been a really tough decision for us all. We’ve given our lives to the Labour movement.
“But more recently, particularly under Keir Stamer’s leadership, there have been policy positions at national level which weren’t within General Election manifestos; winter fuel allowance for 11 million pensioners, abandonment of the Waspi women campaign, the Labour Party’s response to Gaza. All of those things have been challenging.”
The group of 20 – who will now be known as the Broxtowe Independents – have claimed 10 of their councillors were blocked from standing in the upcoming county council elections after making their opposition to key Labour decisions known.
Marshall – who was first elected as a councillor in 2011 – said he had become frustrated with Labour’s position on the atrocities in Gaza, insisting the Government should have ended arms sales to Israel.
“The horrific attacks in October [2023] need to be condemned, unequivocal,” Marshall said.
“But since then whether it’s Human Rights Watch or the United Nations or Amnesty International, the international opinion of the Israeli response to Palestine has been horrific and in that sense the Labour Party, I don’t think, has been strong enough in its condemnation of the actions of Israel.
“There have been some sanctions on arms but I don’t think that goes far enough, there need to be more sanctions.”
Asked if he felt the UK Government should’ve have axed arms sales to Israel completely, he said: “Yes I think that’s true. I’m frustrated we haven’t been able to do that.”
Marshall said his group were “not alone” in developing a disaffection for Labour and warned there are councillors in nearby local authorities who “have concerns”.
The Labour Party’s decision to means-test the Winter Fuel Payment has come into sharp focus this weekend with Age UK advising pensioners to go into debt rather than not put their heating on during a cold snap that has swept the UK.
Marshall said the move was one of the reasons his group accused Labour of “abandoning” traditional values.
“Where societies have universal benefits they are happier, healthier, there’s less inequality,” he said.
“I don’t believe a means-tested approach [to the Winter Fuel Payment] was the right idea, certainly not for the relative peanuts financially we were talking about.
“Headline news now is the cold snap that’s happening and there will be pensioners now who are incredibly worried about whether they can turn their heating on. That cannot be right in terms of a traditional, Labour working class principle.”
The Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign was started by 1950s-born women who were not made sufficiently aware of changes to the state pension age, throwing their retirement plans into chaos.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) recommended compensation at a level of between £1000 and £2950 per person, but Labour chose to ignore this advice arguing the taxpayer “simply can’t afford the burden”.
Marshall said he was not prepared to turn his back on Waspi women he had stood with for years.
He added: “When trust in politicians is at an all time low, how can you go out prior to being elected and have a photo with a Waspi sign saying ‘we’re with you’, and then turn around and say we’re not. It can’t be right.
“I’ve stood with Waspi women for years. I’m not prepared to say now ‘money is a bit tight so stuff it’.”
Even though Marshall was stopped from standing for Labour this year, he said he still hoped the Labour Government would make a difference in the East Midlands which had suffered from economic decline.
However, he said the UK Government had so far failed to convince him.
“Even though I have faced some personal challenges within the Labour Party I didn’t take my bat home if you see what I mean,” Marshall said.
“The East Midlands is an area of economic decline. It has significant health inequalities. I wanted the hope of Labour Party politicians to address that and unfortunately that’s neither happening at a local or parliamentary level.”
A Labour Party spokesperson 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.
"These defections have no effect on the commitment of the remaining Labour councillors in serving our residents."
