As polls show Labour are on course to lose more than half of their Councillors, the resignation of Councillor Hendrina Quinnen from Birmingham Labour, just over two weeks before the all out elections, is yet another sign of a party imploding under its own dysfunction, say Birmingham Local Conservatives.
Councillor Quinnen, who represents Handsworth Ward, has quit Labour to sit as an independent. This follows 9 other Labour Councillors who have done the same in recent months.
Local Conservatives have argued that her departure exposes a Labour group so divided and directionless that even their own councillors can no longer tolerate the chaos.
Birmingham Labour continues to operate under a Council Leader who has refused to accept the result of a no-confidence vote and is squatting in the Council House with no legitimacy, putting the Council at risk of judicial review for any decisions he takes during this period.
Cllr Robert Alden (Con, Erdington), Leader of the Birmingham Local Conservatives group on Birmingham City Council, said:
Birmingham Labour have spent 3 weeks refusing to accept they lost a no-confidence vote and should resign. Yet another of their Councillors has now quit the party. The rest of the bankrupt Labour Administration should show the same moral courage as Cllr Quinnen and resign. Birmingham Labour may be refusing to go with dignity, but on 7th May, residents have the chance to kick them out and back the Local Conservatives’ plan to balance the books, end the strike, and save weekly bin collections.
Robert added,
Another Labour councillor walking away is not a coincidence, it is a symptom of a party in total freefall. While Birmingham faces the biggest crisis in its history, Labour is too busy fighting itself to run the City. Residents are being let down every single day by a Labour Administration that has lost control, lost credibility, and lost the confidence of its own members. Only the Local Conservatives have a serious plan to clean up the City and balance the books. Labour’s chaos is costing this City dearly, and a vote for anyone else on 7th May risks allowing Labour back in.
