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Lib Dem candidate defects to Labour two days before election

May 1, 2012 11:12 am

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Just two days before the local elections, a Lib Dem candidate has defected to Labour. Jordan Cooper is the Lib Dem candidate for St Mary’s Ward in Traffprd.

Cooper released “An Open Letter to Tim Farron” through Manchester Young Labour today, which said:

This year I’ve stood as a candidate for the Liberal Democrats in the local elections. My local party in Altrincham are a committed group, passionate about the local area but ever since 2010, I’ve felt increasingly uneasy in the party.

3 years ago I joined the Liberal Democrats because I believed they embodied the principles and values that I stood for. Their policies appeared genuine and on the side of young people – who can forget their pledge to abolish tuition fees? Since entering the coalition the Liberal Democrats have abandoned what they stood for and become little more than an extension of the Tory party. They haven’t simply failed to deliver these policies – they’ve delivered the opposite and worsened the problems they pledged to solve.

You can read the whole statement here.

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  3. Top Liverpool Tory defects to Labour
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  5. Lib Dem candidate quits after less than a week
  • http://twitter.com/CrystalVelvetUk Crystal Velvet

    Again this is more political posturing by the Tory Dems.The simple question that needs to be asked is if they disagree with there Tory masters Is why not withdraw support and call an election and save Ordinary working people Three years of Hardship and impoverishment. The answer is that the Orange book Tory Dems are in reality following the same agenda as the far right Conservative party. Anything other than complete withdrawal from this administration will be regarded as betrayal One single vote at the next election for the Orange Tories will be one to many for such a duplicitous party

  • AlanGiles

    I always feel this kind of behaviour is self-regarding as well as grossly disloyal. 

    Remember how we felt about Luke Bozier – and however much of a toerag he is/was, at least he didn’t choose to do it a few days short of an election.

    This man must have been thinking of this decision for some time. He has chosen to act as he has, and I would always be very careful, if I were in his new party, that he might go and do it again – this time to us.

    • Chilbaldi

      agreed.

      Choosing to join a political party requires deep seated commitment. Remaining in that political party requires real staying power – at times you may feel that you don’t belong, that the majority in the party disagree with you – but you stay in the party regardless. You stick it for the long haul as you are committed to helping that party win elections.

      This guy eitherjoined the Lib Dems on a whim or as a vehicle for his own ambitions (and has decided that the vehicle has run out of petrol), or has no staying power.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=36910622 Edward Carlsson Browne

       I doubt he’s actually been thinking of this exact act for ages. If he was, he’d have done it in time to withdraw his nomination, and so ensure a straight Labour-Conservative fight.

      I think it’s more likely that he’s been unhappy for a while, but these feelings have only suddenly crystallised. That means we have to react to this in a different way.

      • AlanGiles

        But Edward he says:  ”
         but ever since 2010, I’ve felt increasingly uneasy in the party.”

        So that “unease”, dormant for 2 years suddenly occurs in the week of the elections?. And, feeling this unease, what on earth possessed him to seek nomination at this point. I’ll be frank about it, had I been XX years younger (I won’t write the figure – the weather is depressing enough without reminding me of A.D!) and I had been in either his party or Labour, my reservations would have been such that I would not have sought office while Nick Clegg remains their leader, and if the other Mr Miliband had, or was likely, to become leader, I would not have sought office, simply because I would have been more than uneasy.

        Well,  genuine conversion for the right reasons? – perhaps. Perhaps not. I’d say not.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray

        I agree, Edward – its sometimes an election which does this. When I left the Labour party over the Iraq issue – it wasn’t straight away. It was because I realised that I couldn’t go canvassing because I couldn’t defend the government if questioned on the doorstep

  • treborc1

    I’m always sceptical about people who do this for the reasons given, what has  made  him change his mind now,perhaps the knowledge he was  not going to win since it’s basically a Tory seat.

    If  he had come over to labour as many do without putting them selves forward for an election people would not have bothered to mention him.

    People who do this do it for a reason, and doing it once they will more then likely do it again if they feel it will gain them an advantage.

  • Janet Keene

    I am concerned that none of his reasons apply to something that has happened since he was selected. While I agree with everything he says – he shouldn’t have accepted the Lib Dem nomination.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray

      I’m sure he thinks that now as well! 

      • Winston_from_the_Ministry

         You’re missing the point Mike. Why not before?

  • http://www.facebook.com/elliot.bidgood Elliot Bidgood

    Are we actually complaining that someone defected *to us*, really? I’d note that he said he’d only joined three years ago (so 2009?), maybe not enough time to develop a really deep attachment for the Lib Dems, though still probably enough in the year or so between his joining and Coalition. After that, he probably tried to stick with it on loyalty and pragmatism grounds for as long as he could, but just ran out of patience on policy & ideology and decided Labour was a better fit. Being a candidate forces you to defend your party more often, which probably adds to the pressure.

    He also got his former party’s name wrong at one point, which was I found odd. I’ve never heard someone call it ”the Liberal Democratic Party” before- “Liberal Democrats” is their official party name, not a shorthand for anything more formal.

    • treborc1

       deep enough to stand for office it seems.

    • Liz Thompson

      He was only 17 in 2009.

  • NoMoreHeroes

    As a Lib Dem council candidate, I’m pleased by the standards of discussion here- makes a change from the usual vitriolic attacks by Blairites. I would say that it’s surely obvious he’s doing this for attention, or some electoral reason- after all, someone who thought these things would really have left just after the NHS bill catastrophe, for example, or over fees, or most likely just when the coalition was formed. Odd.

  • james

    But Labour has form on this – remember Alec Kellaway who defected from the Alliance to Labour the day before a by-election in which he was the LD candidate?

    I know Labour people don’t understand why people vote Liberal Democrat (I shall be voting for them in my own council area due to the fact that I like the council and that it was revealed that if the council goes to NOC they will go in coalition with the Tories anyway) but just imagine if it was the other way round and you had voted Labour by post even in a no-hope seat only to find that within days this had happened. You’d be feeling pretty gutted.

    • Redshift

      I understand why people did vote Lib Dem, it is understanding why they are still doing it that I’m finding increasingly baffling.

  • Jeremy_Preece

    As a member of the Labour party, who wants to see Labour win elections, I welcome those who join our party.
    In our area we have Tories trying to tell us that they are on our side and don’t like their own leadership (so vote for me anyway) and LibDems who want to win local elections while arguing that they can fight the same Tory party that they are in coalition with.
    Once you get to that point we should commend those who decide to actually be honest and join Labour.

    Don’t forget, as the man says, the LibDems sold out on their principles and made it possible for a minority Tory government to deliver the opposite of the policies promised by LibDems. Therefore leaving the LibDems was the right thing to do.
    As for the timing, well maybe there is an element of theatre about it – but hey, he’s moved in the right direction!

  • David

    Tristan Pithers, who was the organiser of  Exeter MP, Ben Bradshaw’s re-election campaign “We’re Backing Ben 2010″, has  gone in the opposite direction and defected to the Liberal Democrats.

    • Redshift

      Erm, a very, very well regarded organiser called Eddie ran Ben Bradshaw’s 2010 campaign. If this Tristan bloke is claiming he did he is lying. 

  • James

    (`Don’t forget, as the man says, the LibDems sold out on their principles and made it possible for a minority Tory government to deliver the opposite of the policies promised by LibDems.`)
    And the principle that you don’t change colours three days before an election after people have sent in postal votes? Just one person deceived in that way is bad enough. 

    To be clear, I don’t mind people defecting from one party to another – but do it so shabbily?

    (In our area we have Tories trying to tell us that they are on our side and don’t like their own leadership (so vote for me anyway) and LibDems who want to win local elections while arguing that they can fight the same Tory party that they are in coalition with.) You just don’t get democratic politics do you? You think everyone fits into neat little boxes and that the electorate can’t differentiate between local politics and national.

    As far as Labour is concerned you can have as many principles as you want – until you cost them they’re not worth a bean. 

    As for `propping up a conservative government` what do you think of ex-lab cllr Patrick MacAuley in Stockport’s revelations: http://iainroberts.mycouncillor.org.uk/2012/02/28/revealed-tories-labour-in-coalition-talks-to-grab-all-paid-positions-in-stockport/ going in the right direction?

  • treborc1

     http://www.leftfutures.org/2012/04/blairite-considers-defection-to-lib-dems-should-he-stay-or-should-he-go/

    win one lose one, very interesting reading.

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