Spring Statement: List of councillors quitting over welfare amid further cuts

The deputy leader of Rotherham Council has become the latest Labour councillor to quit the party over the government’s welfare reforms and cutbacks, with ministers expected to confirm another £500m in cuts today.

Welfare reforms unveiled by Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall aim to save £5bn  as part of today’s Spring Statement – with measures including restricting eligibility to personal independence payments for disabled people.

Discontent is likely to flare up further today as ministers are expected to unveil a further £500m in cuts, with universal credit incapacity benefits thought likely to be frozen until 2030 and the basic rate of universal credit reduced in 2029.

Meanwhile the government impact assessment on reforms is expected to be a flashpoint if released as expected alongside the Chancellor’s statement, laying bare the potential human impact of the changes.

One backbench MP told LabourList ahead of the statement they were “keeping my fingers crossed that more welfare cuts aren’t coming” as reported.

READ MORE: MPs on Spring Statement: ‘Let’s soothe the nation, not kick it in the teeth’

Rotherham Council deputy leader and lifelong Labour member David Sheppard described the changes as “unconscionable” this week, and hit out at the government for “targeting people who need support the most”.

He said: “I have always held the belief that government should do what it can to equalise the injustices within society.

“Sadly, this and other recent announcements have led me to conclude that this is currently not the case.”

Council leader Chris Read described Sheppard’s decision to quit the party as “deeply disappointing”, calling him a “hardworking Labour councillor for the last nine years”.

Sheppard’s resignation from the party is the eighth in recent weeks in reaction to the government’s welfare reform proposals, which include five Labour councillors in Dudley. Former Labour MSP Neil Findlay also announced his resignation from the party, claiming the changes to benefits “punish and stigmatise the weak, poor and the vulnerable”.

The government has defended the reforms, arguing they are needed to get people who are on long-term sick leave back into work and to cut Britain’s ballooning benefits bill.

Ahead of today’s Spring Statement, we are compiling a rolling list of Labour councillors who have quit the party over the government’s benefit reforms. If you know of any councillors to add to this list, email us at [email protected].

Following resignations in Dudley, a West Midlands Labour spokesperson said: “Labour inherited a broken welfare system from the Conservatives, which risked a generation of young people being written off and millions of people who want to work not getting the support they need.

“Labour will deliver a social security system that is fit for the future.”

Pete Lowe (March 19)

Councillor Pete Lowe, who served as leader of the Labour group in Dudley, resigned from the party after more than 40 years of membership. He described his decision to quit as “heartbreaking but unavoidable”.

Lowe also reportedly played an important role in Richard Parker’s campaign to become the West Midlands’ first Labour mayor last year.

In a letter of resignation addressed to the Prime Minister, he said: “I have finally concluded, and it’s heartbreaking to say so, that my party has left me behind, found new friends and priorities in the city and the markets, whilst the very people who look to the party for a real alternative, good honest working-class people in the Black Country and beyond have been abandoned.

“I am not leaving the Labour Party – the Labour Party left me some time ago.”

He has since formed a new breakaway group of councillors with others who have also resigned from the Labour Party.

Karl Denning (March 20)

Councillor Karl Denning quit claiming that the national party had “left me behind”.

Denning, who was blinded in a workplace accident and is assisted by a guide dog, said that comments made by Wes Streeting “sealed the fact that Labour were not the party I joined to fight for a fair more just country”.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, he said: “I have been asked how I can be a member of a party that is willing to turn on disabled people so easily, and if ‘I’ll be able to sleep at night’.

“After much heart searching and thought, I do not think I can remain a member of the Labour Party. It is one of the most difficult decisions I have had to make.

“I joined the Labour Party fighting for disabled [people] and those without a voice and it seems I leave the Labour Party doing the same thing.”

Denning has since joined Lowe’s breakaway group of councillors.

READ MORE: Spring Statement: ‘Why not draft in Martin Lewis to fill the fiscal hole?’

Peter Drake (March 20)

Dudley councillor Peter Drake said that he could not defend a Labour government “which does not and will not represent the working class and ordinary people,” as he resigned from the Labour Party.

Drake, who had been a member of the party since 2015, said: “All I have ever wanted to do is help working-class people; but the sad reality I have woken up to is that the national Labour Party is no longer the voice of the working-class.

“Since winning the general election, Keir Starmer and his Labour government have shown no real interest in improving the lives of normal working people. That is a facade they used to win votes from people who desperately wanted change.

“I cannot and will not defend the indefensible. I will not tolerate the punitive, uncompassionate, downright idiotic policies that we see from Keir Starmer’s government. They have betrayed the Labour movement and offer no alternative to permanent austerity.”

Drake has since joined Lowe’s breakaway group of councillors.

Matt Cook (March 20)

Dudley councillor Matt Cook quit the Labour Party after claiming the party had “moved away from their founding principles”.

In a statement, Cook, who was elected as a councillor last year, said: “I feel it has become increasingly disconnected from the needs of the people it was meant to represent, and I can no longer in good conscience remain a part of it.”

Cook told the Birmingham Mail that his family had always voted Labour, but that the changes to the welfare system would affect some of them.

“I have put my heart and soul into being a Labour member and councillor but it is just not working.”

Cook has since joined Lowe’s breakaway group of councillors.

READ MORE: Spring Statement: Reeves ‘confident’ civil service could cut 10,000 roles as Blunkett decries fiscal rules

Karen Constantine (March 22)

Deputy leader of the Labour group on Kent County Council Karen Constantine quit the party after more than 40 years of membership, citing the welfare reform announcement as part of the reason for her decision.

She wrote to Keir Starmer to express her concerns about the impact of the changes on the most vulnerable.

Constantine said: “The party has strayed from its core values, abandoned hope, and forsaken the democratic principles that I and many others hold dear. It has lost its way, it has left members like me.

“The recent proposed cuts to welfare have already instilled deep concern and will only further exacerbate the struggles of our society’s most vulnerable. This includes the disabled and many young people who are already facing significant hardship and difficulty in my division of Ramsgate.

“While Labour speaks of getting people back to work, it offers no viable solutions for the dire employment opportunities in my area.”

She also expressed anger at the “ongoing refusal to apologise for historic forced adoptions”.

Luke Hamblett (March 22)

Dudley councillor Luke Hamblett announced he would be leaving the Labour Party “with a heavy heart” following decisions from the government, including the winter fuel allowance and changes to health-related benefits.

In a statement shared on social media, Hamblett said: “Last year, I was full of optimism when I was elected to serve Quarry Bank and Dudley Wood. Like the rest of the country, I believed change was on the way.

“With dismay at first and then disgust, I watched as a ‘Labour’ government kept the two-child benefit cap, removed winter fuel payments from millions of pensioners and are now targeting people with disabilities. Enough is enough.”

READ MORE: Spring Statement: ‘The Chancellor must not make foreign aid cuts worse’

John Warmisham (March 23)

Veteran councillor John Warmisham accused Labour of “losing its moral compass” under Keir Starmer’s leadership as he resigned from the party. Warmisham, who has served as a Salford councillor for 34 years, said in a letter to the city’s mayor that Labour “no longer represents the communities that it was set up to serve”.

He said: “Cutting the welfare benefits to the disabled, the sick, the poor and the vulnerable, whilst committing billions of pounds to arms and supporting wars is immoral, as well as government ministers pushing pensioners, families and children further into poverty.”

David Sheppard (March 25)

Deputy leader of Rotherham Council David Sheppard, who was first elected in 2016, resigned from the Labour Party in protest over the government’s welfare reforms. While he said he supports the work Labour is doing at a local level, Sheppard said the government had “chosen to target people who need support the most”.

Matt Renyard (March 26)

Southampton councillor Matt Renyard, who had been involved with the Labour Party for 15 years, announced his defection to the Green Party after claiming it is “becoming increasingly difficult to speak honestly” within the party locally and nationally.

Renyard, a former council cabinet member, said: “Labour have broken my heart. They used to be the party that represented everyday ordinary people, fighting for the poor, the vulnerable, and both the working and middle classes. Following the first nine months of this newly elected Labour government, it is clear that Labour has lost its way.”

Read more of our Spring Statement news and analysis:

• ‘Ill thought out’ or ‘strong performance’? Reeves’ Spring Statement divides MPs
• Reeves under fire from Labour’s three biggest unions
• List of councillors quitting over welfare amid further cuts
• The four Labour achievements Reeves is trumpeting
• MPs: ‘Let’s soothe the nation, not kick it in the teeth’
• Reeves ‘confident’ civil service could cut 10,000 roles as Blunkett decries fiscal rules

And read more commentary on the Spring Statement:

• ‘Why not draft in Martin Lewis to fill the fiscal hole?’
• ‘Ministers must reject failed Tory orthodoxies of the past and put people before profit again’
• ‘The Chancellor must not make foreign aid cuts worse’
• ‘People want New Labour-style spending now. Here’s why it’s just not possible’

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