Uxbridge and South Ruislip CLP chair quits party after defeat, praising Corbyn

The chair of Uxbridge and South Ruislip Constituency Labour Party has quit his role and the party after Labour’s narrow defeat in the by-election, saying politics needs “principles” and praising former party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

David Williams made the announcement and apparent attack on leader Keir Starmer on social media just hours after Labour candidate Danny Beales came within a few hundred votes of taking the outer London seat from the Conservatives for the first time.

It also came at the same time as Starmer was addressing voters in Selby after Labour’s historic win in that seat.

But Labour had been widely expected to win the seat amid anger at the Conservatives and former prime minister Boris Johnson who held it until earlier this year. The Conservatives and media have claimed it shows some hope for the Conservatives yet despite other heavy by-election defeats in Selby and Ainsty and Somerton and Frome.

The ultra-low emission zone expansion by Labour London mayor Sadiq Khan, which would affect the constituency later this year, has been widely blamed for the defeat, though not all local activists agree it was the only factor. Beales still saw a 6.7% swing, but it was significantly less than the historic swing achieved in Selby and Ainsty.

Williams tweeted: “I have resigned as chair of Uxbridge and South Ruislip CLP. I am also resigning my membership of the Labour Party.

“Politics needs to have principles or we end up with people like Boris Johnson and Liz Truss running the country, Jeremy Corbyn gave a huge boost to the Labour Party.”

But others have argued ULEZ’s salience could see Labour double down on a more safety-first approach, taking it as a lesson in the risks of more radical policies.

National Executive Committee member Abdi Duale tweeted sarcastically: “Famously Jeremy Corbyn won Uxbridge in 2017 and 2019.”

Journalist Lee Harpin even claimed that the reasons for Labour defeat were now “clearer”, alleging a “Corbyn-supporting CLP chair will not have helped”.

Yet a local party source also told LabourList: “David’s been a loyal member of the CLP for years and years, and has been a fantastic chair.

“Regional’s selection-fixing in December, which was personally horrible for the selection committee to go through, on top of Starmer’s ditching of his ten pledges, has made so much of the membership locally feel unwelcome in their own party. David’s a principled man, and he doesn’t feel that Labour is a principled party right now.”

One Momentum source added: “In Uxbridge, Starmer’s acolytes intervened in the Uxbridge candidate selection and disempowered members.

“As in Wakefield, Kensington and so many other places, the net result of this is members quitting, activists alienated and a divided, weakened party. This result should be a wake-up call: stop the purges, respect members and offer our core vote some real hope.”

LabourList previously reported last year how the local selection committee in Uxbridge and South Ruislip had been disbanded with “immediate effect”. The results of ward nomination meetings were declared “null and void”, with control of the remainder of the process passing to London region.

A local member told LabourList then they were “very unhappy” that the selection committee had been dissolved.