Twenty Labour councillors have quit the party in protest at its direction under the leadership of Sir Keir Starmer, accusing the prime minister of having “abandoned traditional Labour values”.
The councillors – from Broxtowe Borough Council in Nottinghamshire – took aim at policies such as cutting the winter fuel allowance for some pensioners, the bus fare increase and Labour’s plans to scrap two-tier county and district councils.
“It is with a heavy heart that we can no longer be in a party that has abandoned traditional Labour values under Keir Starmer’s leadership,” the group said.
“From the cutting of the winter fuel allowance for 11 million pensioners, to the retention of the two-child benefit cap for struggling families, the increase in bus fares across our towns and cities, the betrayal of Waspi women pensioners to a tepid response to the genocide in Gaza, we say this is not the Labour Party we campaigned for.”
Council leader Milan Radulovic, who had been a party member for more than four decades, is among those walking away from Labour to establish a new independent party.
The move means Labour has lost overall control of Broxtowe borough council, which it gained in 2023. They are planning to run the borough council as a minority administration in the short-term, but are likely to need support from existing independents in order to hold control.
It follows months of public disagreement between Labour activists in Broxtowe and the party hierarchy, including a row over the selection process for the party’s candidates at the general election and the forthcoming county council contest.
The councillors claimed 10 of them had been blocked from standing for Labour at upcoming local elections for Nottinghamshire County Council after criticising the winter fuel policy.
The party has insisted the selection process followed the normal format.
In 2023, the executive committee of the Broxtowe constituency Labour Party resigned, claiming Labour’s national executive committee had blocked local councillor Greg Marshall from standing in the seat.
The constituency was won by Labour’s Juliet Campbell in the July 2024 landslide, who was previously a councillor in Lewisham. But ahead of the election, Broxtowe Labour accused the party of unfairly imposing an outside candidate on the constituency.
It comes amid wider criticism of the Labour party executive, which has been accused of parachuting loyal members of the party into safe seats and blocking candidates who are thought to be too critical of the party’s leadership.
But former Broxtowe Tory MP Anna Soubry, who quit the party for an independent group and backed Labour at the last election, said the councillors who quit the party “never supported Starmer”, saying “their treatment of their party’s [parliamentary] candidate from the time of her selection was appalling”.
Meanwhile, the remaining Labour councillors in Broxtowe said it is “incredibly disappointing” that they have quit the party just 18 months after being elected on a Labour ticket.
Mr Radulovic said he was “deeply saddened” over the decision to quit the party, but said he had been placed in an “impossible position”.
“I cannot support and will not support another centrist government intent on destroying local democracy and dictating national policy from a high pedestal,” he said.
He also criticised plans to reorganise local government, which could see district and borough councils scrapped after Angela Rayner said she wants every region of England to get a mayor.
“I believe the concentration of power in the hands of fewer people and the abolition of local democracy through the current proposals of super councils is nothing short of a dictatorship, where local elected members, local people, local residents will have no say over the type and level of service provided in their area,” Mr Radulovic.
The group claimed that 100 local grassroots members had also left Labour.
It comes amid a turbulent first week of the year for Sir Keir, with the Tories and Elon Musk piling in on the government over its handling of the grooming gangs scandal, and a damning YouGov poll revealing that voters see Labour as “incompetent” and “dishonest”, with only 12 per cent saying the party has been successful so far.
The prime minister has faced widespread criticism from across the political spectrum over the decision to cut winter fuel payments for those not on benefits, with Labour’s own analysis from 2017 revealing that thousands of pensioners could die as a result of the policy.
In a statement, the remaining Broxtowe Labour Councillors 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.
“We, together with our Labour colleagues including MPs Juliet Campbell and Alex Norris, will continue to work to make Broxtowe a healthier, greener, safer and more prosperous place for everyone as change begins under this Labour government.”