West Sussex Labour Councillors Leave Party Post-Election

Three councillors who resigned from Worthing Borough Council’s Labour party have outlined their reasons for choosing to sit as independents.

Margaret Howard (Ind, Broadwater), Hillary Schan (Ind, Tarring) and Carl Walker (Ind, Selden), who was deputy leader of the council, announced they were resigning from the party late on Sunday, May 5 – two days after the results of the May 2 elections were announced.

Sophie Cox (Lab, Castle) is to replace Cllr Walker as deputy leader and a full cabinet reshuffle is expected to take place at the full council meeting on May 21.

As well as quitting the party, Cllr Schan resigned from her position as co-chair of Labour’s national left-wing campaign group Momentum to join with the ‘We Deserve Better’ campaign, promoting progressive parliamentary Green and Independent candidates outside of Worthing.

The three councillors said they had decided to leave before the May 2 local council elections but had waited to announce the decision until after, so as not to not detract from Labour’s chances.

Cllr Howard said she would not stand for re-election when her term is up in 2026, with Cllrs Schan and Walker, who are both up for re-election in 2027, saying they would consider their options closer to the time.

The three said some of the factors in their deciding to leave were the national party’s stance on the two-child benefit cap, caps on bankers’ bonuses, the war in Gaza, local government funding, the right-to-buy scheme, workers’ strikes, the climate and treatment of local party members.

All three new independents said they still planned to work ‘closely’ with the Labour administration, as ‘progressive’ independents.

Cllr Walker said he had only ‘seriously’ considered leaving in the last month, adding it had been a ‘cumulative drip feed’ of issues with the national party which had driven him to the decision.

He said:

“I think it’s going to strengthen the council. I think I can represent the residents better as an independent in the coming couple of years of an impending Labour Government.

“If the Labour party don’t fund local government properly and they don’t make the kind of changes we need for housing, I think it’s important to have a voice for residents to call that out, while still pushing for progressive politics locally.”

Cllr Schan said her place in the party had become ‘intolerable’ over the last six months, saying the ‘inadequacy’ of Sir Keir Starmer’s initial statement to address the war in Gaza played a part in her decision, as well.

She said:

 “Its come to a point where I don’t feel like I can represent the national party anymore – it’s been a really difficult decision for all three of us. The drift very much rightwards in terms of economic and domestic policy as well, rowing back on the climate pledges. It feels like a time where we have to be able to stand up for our residents in council and hold that policy to account.

“It’s certainly not a reflection on the local Labour party. We still very much support the local council and Beccy Cooper’s campaign to be elected in Worthing West.”

She added rumours of her being investigated by the Labour Party were false, stating she had never been investigated by the party in her time as a councillor.

Cllr Howard said her work with the Broadwater Support Group and Community Hub was easier when not associated with Labour, due to backers not wanting to be seen to be endorsing political projects.

She said:

“Some people don’t like the stepping away and make it out to be all about [Jeremy] Corbyn, it’s just not – the list is endless of all the things I’m upset about. I didn’t want to upset the local elections because I didn’t want to upset the local candidates.

“It would be a perfect line for the opposition to say ‘Look, your own people are leaving’, so I didn’t want to give them that chance.”

She added she was also grateful to not be ‘constantly nervous’ of posting anything on social media, after two investigations from Labour into her past activity.

She said ‘life is too short’ to be ‘worrying’ about all her social media posts, saying one of the investigations was ‘so stupid it was untrue’.

Cllr Howard said the party would tell people not to tell anyone they were under investigation, saying she was aware of other party members who were ‘scared’ of speaking out about their experience.

A spokesperson for the Labor party told the LDRS:

“The Labour Party takes all complaints extremely seriously. All complaints are investigated, and any necessary disciplinary action is taken in line with our rules and procedures.”

Worthing Borough Council leader Beccy Cooper (Lab, Marine) said:

“It is sad that a small number of councillors have decided to leave the Labour Group, but we will continue to focus on being a Council for the Community that delivers the services and improvements that will allow all our residents to thrive.”

Worthing Conservative group leader Kevin Jenkins (Con, Goring) said in a statement that many voters would feel ‘deceived’ with the members leaving so soon after local elections, which saw Labour increase its majority on the council by two seats.

He said:

“These three Councillors have stood alongside the local Labour Party councillors and election candidates under the Labour Party banner, encouraging support for the Labour candidates in the election, yet in the full knowledge that after the election they would resign from the party.

“In their own ward areas this may have had an impact on voters’ intentions and may have produced a different election result, we will never know.”

None of the three councillors had their seats up for election, although Broadwater and Selden both saw victory for respective Labour councillors Catherine Glynn-Davies and Jon Roser.

The elections also saw the only Liberal Democrat on the council, Hazel Thorpe, lose her seat in Tarring to Labour’s Lysanne Skinner, a seat Cllr Thorpe had described as a Liberal Democrat ‘stronghold’.

The new independents all said they had received large amounts of support from their residents after announcing their choice to leave, stating they would be able to better represent their residents and the council outside of the party.