Crawley Ex-Labour Independents Won't Resign

Monday, 13 July 2020 18:06

By Karen Dunn, Local Democracy Reporter

Two former Labour councillors have said they will not resign from Crawley Borough Council as it would give the Conservatives majority control.

Karen Sudan and Rory Fiveash quit the Labour Party earlier this month and are now listed as Independents.

Their decision left the council with 17 Conservative councillors, 16 Labour and two independents, with one seat vacant following the death of Geraint Thomas in November.

In a joint letter to the chairman and chief whip of Crawley’s Labour Group, the mother and son said they were still ‘committed’ to Labour’s manifesto and did not see ‘any need to concede anything to the Tories’.

They admitted that they had been ‘tempted’ to walk away during the past fortnight, which have seen the council thrown into turmoil and a vote of no confidence in the leader and the administration placed on the agenda for a meeting later this week.

They added:

“Should we resign our council seats at this time – while by-elections cannot take place – it would leave residents of Bewbush, Northgate and West Green without the full representation to which they are entitled.

“Not only this, but this would be handing control to the Tories – they would then have a straight majority and would be able to take measures that are definitely not in accordance with Labour’s principles and values.”

With the town’s priority essentially focussed on the impact of Covid-19 – and what will be a difficult road to recovery from the pandemic – Labour leader Peter Lamb is to meet with his opposite number Duncan Crow to discuss the possibility of forming a coalition.

Mrs Sudan and Mr Fiveash called the decision ‘puzzling’.

The pair, who were both being investigated by the Labour Party over Tweets and emails they had sent, made it clear that their issues were not with Party’s principles and values but with Mr Lamb’s leadership.

They said they ‘could not in all conscience give our votes to a leader in whom we now have even less confidence than we did at the time we resigned’.

During his weekly online Q&A, Mr Lamb said he had submitted a complaint through the council’s standards process about some of the things said by Mrs Sudan and Mr Fiveash which he could prove were ‘untrue’.