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Brent Lib Dem defects to Labour – says party “betrayed the values that I once shared with them”

July 31, 2012 11:16 am

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A Lib Dem Councillor in the London Borough of Brent has defected to Labour, saying that the Lib Dems have betrayed the values that he once shared with them. James Allie’s resignation letter also accuses his former party of being hypocritical and says that the Lib Dems have neither the will not the ability to make Britain “fairer, greener and more equal”.

And perhaps more damningly, the former Lib Dem accuses local MP and minister Sarah Teather of campaigning to save a local A&E “when it was not under threat of closure” – only join a government which is closing it.

You can read James’s resignation letter in full below:

Open letter from Councillor James Allie – Alperton Ward, Brent

It is with great sadness that after more than 10 years as a Liberal Democrat Councillor, this week I have resigned my membership of the party. I joined the Liberal Democrats because I wanted to help make Britain a fairer, greener and more equal country. I no longer believe that the Liberal Democrat Party has the will or the ability to make this happen. They have betrayed the values that I once shared with them.

However, I believe that the Labour Party, under Ed Miliband in Westminster and their new Leader of Brent Council Muhammed Butt, shares my values and that I can as part of a Labour administration, once again work to improve the lives of the people I represent.

I have always struggled to lend my support to the devastating policies the Coalition is inflicting on Britain. I have also been sickened by the hypocritical things the Liberal Democrats do and say here in Brent. While my feelings about this have built up over the past two years, there are three issues that have finally pushed me to take this decision:

  1. The people I represent in Alperton are struggling more than ever under this government, but the Liberal Democrat Leadership in Westminster is prioritising reform of the House of Lords instead of a plan for economic growth.
  2. The closure of the A&E at Central Middlesex Hospital under this government is an astonishing betrayal. Brent MP Sarah Teather campaigned to keep the A&E when it was not under threat of closure. Now she is in government closing it. I am only sorry that I trusted her back then and I am sure that a number of her constituents feel the same way.
  3. The Leader of the Liberal Democrats in Brent, Paul Lorber, also knows very well that had the Lib Dems won the Local Election in 2010 they would have faced the same pressure to close the six libraries in Brent that have caused such a stir. It is the Coalition’s cuts to local government that have caused this problem and Cllr. Lorber’s posturing on the issue is just an insult to the library campaigners and the people of Brent.

I recognise that some of my constituents in Alperton will feel let down by my decision. I apologise to them if they feel I ought to have nailed my colours to the mast more firmly before the election. Equally I trust that many of them voted for me because they knew of the hard work that I have done as a councillor over the years.  I pledge to them that I will work harder than ever to improve the lives of everyone who lives in Alperton.

I know that there are many people who voted Lib Dem at the last election and indeed many Lib Dem members who feel as betrayed as I do by the party’s record in the coalition. I urge them to join me and to join the Labour Party.

Regards,

Councillor James Allie

Alperton

Brent

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  3. Lib Dem councillor defects to Labour in Clegg’s back yard
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  5. Senior local government Lib Dem defects to Labour
  • Neil Linderman

    Well, he could be James Allie MP for Brent North. He really could have applied pressure to Barry Gardiner (a very competent constituency MP) but either the Lib Dems or Mr. Allie decided that they/he did not wish to campaign properly. Perhaps it is now clear. When he stood for election in Brent North he could have met with residents, or even posted leaflets through letterboxes, explaining how seriously committed he was to ensuring that Central Middlesex A&E would remain open. Something somewhere ws wrong. I wanted to vote for this man, as I know several others wanted to yet we couldn’t do it for someone unwilling to fight a proper campaign. I don’t consider this principled action; I didn’t even know he became a councillor. Careerist, opportunist.

    • Will

      Love is the law, love under Will.

  • Simon

    So you were Cool and the Gang about the “bedroom tax”, ATOS, and the Coalition’s other swingeing welfare cuts then, James.

    • Amber Star

      That could be part of the reason why he’s leaving the LibDems. Let’s hope Labour can provide better policies for the issues you raise. But let’s be clear, none of the Parties have come up with a welfare system which has the public’s support but also meets people’s needs when they’re in difficulties.

      • Simon

        Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die. Everybody wants a brilliant NHS and a cradle to grave welfare state but don’t want to pay for it. The general public are not in possession of the facts nor are they analytical. Politicians should do what is necessary and cut out the bullshit about lowering taxes and cutting welfare… but only to lazy, undeserving people who are refusing well-paid jobs and to support themselves like the rest of us. That is a lie. As the nation will find out from April 2013 onwards when the remaining 88% of the pencilled in cuts begin to come into force.

        The people are, sadly, ignorant and stupid.

        Politicians rely on such ignorance and stupidity to wreck terrible evil upon the sick, poor, disabled, young, dispossessed and jobless. There were two television programmes about ATOS and the absolutely heinous Work Capability Assessment last night on BBC1 and C4. 

        Panorama : http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006t14n Dispatches http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/4od#3388055

        Sadly the Labour Party is as much to blame for this atrocity as the Conservative Party since it was James Purnell and Yvette Cooper who joyfully laid the foundations for this wicked regime during Labour’s last few years in office. They have both been fulsomely praised by Ed Miliband for their “achievements” and “effort” devilish though they were. 

        • Simon
          • treborc

            Not Blair then.

        • Mark

          This is true. James Purnell and Yvette Cooper have actually and factually killed people by means of their astonishingly bad policies and decisions. And the latter of these rogues is now shadowing William Hague. Nice one Labour Party.

          • ThePurpleBooker

            Rubbish on several levels. Firstly, Hague is not Home Secretary. Secondly, they killed nobody. Thirdly, stop chatting nonsense.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Senior/526933811 Mark Senior

      Resign your seat and have the guts to fight a byelection under your new colours . you have no moral legitimacy to represent your constituents until you do .  

    • treborc

      Well yes sadly of course he will now be a liberal within a labour party.

    • Redshift

      I would argue he has more legitimacy than the Lib Dems in Westminster. He became a Lib Dem when they had a progressive platform, no that they do not, he has changed to a party that does. 

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Senior/526933811 Mark Senior

        You may well argue that but that would only show you up for what you are , Labour have not stood on a progressive platform since 1983 and that went down well with the electorate – not . 

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

      Liberal Democrats who defect from other parties don’t do this, Mark, as you well know.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Senior/526933811 Mark Senior

        And as I have said many times before they should do ( unless the defection is within the 6 month’s time limit before the next scheduled elections ) . There have been 2 or 3 examples where a defecting councillor has done so but far too few . 

        • Homfray

          But unless it’s a convention all adhere to it seems reasonable for him not to do so

    • Will

      Winston Churchill walked across the House from the Liberals to the Conservatives and never offered to fight a by-election to confirm his legitimacy. Does that make him gutless?

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Senior/526933811 Mark Senior

        You should check your history , Churchill did no such thing . He left the Liberals after his defeat at the 1923 GE and then fought a couple of byelections as an Independent then Constitutionalist winning the 1924 GE as a Constitutionalist IIRC with Conservative support and almost immediately joined the Conservatives when he was offered the C of E . 

        • Will

          Churchill did cross the floor of the House  from the Conservatives to the Liberals in 1904 without seeing fit to fight a by-election to confirm his legitimacy. Check out:

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill

          Here’s a quote from the article:

          “During his first parliamentary session, he (Churchill) opposed the government’s military expenditure and Joseph Chamberlain’s proposal of extensive tariffs, which were intended to protect Britain’s economic dominance. His own constituency effectively deselected him, although he continued to sit for Oldham until the next general election.”

  • Amber Star

    Changing Party is a huge decision. Friends & contacts he has built over the years are now ’the opposition’; some will likely become strangers or even enemies. New colleagues may question the motives & wonder: Will he switch again? 

    I hope it works out for his constituents, for Labour & for James Allie.

  • http://www.facebook.com/anthony.fairclough.52 Anthony Fairclough

    Who said in January 2011: “Labour claim they are
    the guardians of the sick, disabled and excluded, it’s a real shame then
    that Labour refused to agree to protect the funding to the some of the
    most vulnerable in Brent. In difficult economic times the importance of
    making sensible local decisions is key. By dismissing our proposals
    Labour have proved they can’t do that.” ?

    • treborc

       labour said they knew how to control the economy or banking, they still do, problem is do you believe them.

  • Gw

    It is hoped that some LiberalDemocrats will defect from the Parliamentary Party and give us all a break. I hope Miliband will take these defectors on sight unseen. They are a plague.

  • aracataca

    Good for him – it must have been a very hard decision to make, when he’d invested so many years and good will towards the LibDem cause and its members.  I’m not the biggest fan of the LibDems (Sarah Teather is a sterling example of a Janus faced LD) but I do recognise that many good people work or have worked for them.

  • ThePurpleBooker

    All those Lib Dem trolls should stop hating. There is no requirement for him to step down but if so, you do realise he’d win the by-election. Labour will take Brent Central (or Willesden) as it will be called if Cameron gets his way. Lib Dems should think long and hard about why they are part of a government which has been delivering rightwing policies despite supposedly being people of the centre-left and why they have rejected an alliance with Labour several times.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Senior/526933811 Mark Senior

      Yes I remember that Labour were certain to gain the LibDem seat in the Dollis Hill byelection in March . Epic fail . 

      • treborc

         He’s an ex liberal so he will always see labour in a different view, like you I cannot remember in my time labour asking the Liberals several times, but being a liberal he may have thought they did.

        • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mark-Senior/526933811 Mark Senior

            On a related topic  , when are Labour going to boot out Stpehen Padmore the pretend Labour councillor for New Cross on Lewisham LBC ? He has pocketted nearly £ 10,000 for attending 2 council meetings in 13 months , the last one he attended for a few minutes just to sign in and then left . The previous meeting he attended , his name was added  after the event though noone can actually remember him being there .
            Methinks Labour are scared of a byelection there . 

          • Homfray

            Given what your party are currently doing in government with the Tories I think you need to aves little more humility. Down to 9% in the polls and being utterly wiped out in the north and midlands

          • ThePurpleBooker

            I think you should be quiet Mark. I have met Stephen. He is a man of integrity and has personal issues which makes it harder for him to get to council meetings but I know that he is very active in the New Cross ward and does his duties there. He is a very popular councillor in New Cross.
            Now on New Cross and Labour being scared of a by-election, can I just ask whether you have got metal issues. Labour would absolutely walk a by-election there something that the Lib Dems will never be able to do. If I were you, I’d be quiet, learn the facts and stop chatting absolute utter Peter Pan fantasies such as Labour losing New Cross and the Lib Dems are brilliant. Grow up and shut up.

      • ThePurpleBooker

        Not only did we notice lies on your election leaflets in Brent but also Labour vote always suffer in low turnouts. A Lib Dem councillor who has defected to Labour at a time when the Lib Dems are universally loathed and are at less than 10% when Labour is at around 40% in the polls, Mr Aillie knows what the Lib Dems do in local government – malicious campaigning – and he could use the fact that he was a former Lib Dem to his advantage. Labour will take Brent Central, you know it and I know it, therefore your mate Sarah Teather the Promise Breaker should be very scared. You rejected a possibility of a centre-left alliance instead you decided to join a Tory-led government with rightwing policies and you betrayed the people who voted for you. If this is what the Lib Dems are reduced to, trolling LabourList calling for a former Lib Dem who has actually got integrity to do something he is not bound at all to do which if he does will deeply humiliate the Lib Dems, then it is just telling what kind of people you are. I think your master Cameron, wants you – I suspect it is delivering on £10 cuts to welfare without real reform of the system just Daily Mail populism. Shame. Now bugger off.

  • http://www.facebook.com/ian.morton Ian Morton

    Councillor decides to jump ship to save his seat – why do all the parties put up with this nonsense for the sake of a couple of days good publicity? It’s time we got rid of this type of person from politics no matter what party they are currently in, they don’t have any interest in serving their community or in the values of the party.

  • Mr Arthur Cook

    Political flotsam drifting with whatever current he feels will keep him his office.

    Following Mr Clegg’s example.
    Labour must be cautious of being associated with such people.

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