From Bangladesh to Luke Akehurst, MORE Labour resignations triggered!

Right, so if there is one thing the regime of Keir Starmer has caused plenty of in it’s war on the left, the diktat and impositions of candidates, the hierarchy of racism that has become synonymous with Labour since Starmer took over and the Forde Report that pointed it all out, largely gone unacted upon in any obvious manner, especially in light of recent attacks on Bangladesh, but the party it must be said still claims to be acting upon, it is resignations. We’ve seen so many not just members of the Labour Party quit, but elected officials too, councillors across the country in no small number have resigned the party whip, but four resignations have come just in the last week, in the last few days actually and racism and candidate imposition have been behind all of them, Two coming as a result of Keir Starmer and Jon Ashworth’s comments over Bangladesh, and two are down to Luke Akehurst, who’s campaign in North Durham goes from bad to worse, when for the sake of installing him there, Labour have just lost two of their councillors from Durham County Council.
Right, so for as much as the media and the same old Labour politicians cropping up on said media keep harping on about how Keir Starmer has changed Labour, none are asking the very pertinent question about whether that change is a good thing or a bad thing and frankly the closest we’ve come during this election campaign to putting that out there has been Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer’s mic-drop moment in a televised hustings talking about how Keir Starmer has changed the Labour Party into the Conservative Party. She’s not been wrong about that either, with droves of socialist members, proper ones who mean it, not the right wingers who just say it, leaving the party or being thrown out, purged, suspended or expelled, as Labour refers to it as shaking off the fleas and Keir Starmer tells them if they don’t like what he’s done to the party, not forgetting he lied his guts out about what he stood for to get elected party leader, then there is the door.
A notable side to this exodus, especially in run ups to local elections, have been the desertions of local councillors, either choosing to go independent or defecting to other parties, or just standing down and their experience and dedication to public service at local level being lost and all because of diktat, imposition and in no small part the hierarchy of racism and the siding with genocide as we’ve seen over Israel and Gaza. That has very much played a part over the course of the last week where as a direct result of party conduct at the highest level, 4 councillors have resigned from the party in disgust, and when they are on the cusp of taking power, really that should count for double, that they see no other course of action but to leave the party and refuse to be associated with them any longer.
The first of these resignations came in the wake of Keir Starmer and Jonathan Ashworth’s comments regarding Bangladesh and why people from there were not being removed, all despite Bangladesh not even featuring in the top 20 of migrant source countries, though is a country with known human rights issues, even as the Tories pushed through a returns policy with Bangladesh, claiming it was a safe country despite that just 6 weeks ago. Starmer has since invited a softly spoken, but no less pointed letter from the High Commissioner of Bangladesh to the UK educating him on such matters, he’s certainly gone through some damage limitation exercises as he’s realised what allegedly might have been a planned election exercise to appeal to the far right, but it has still come at a cost, both at the time and since.
The first resignation was that of no less that the Deputy Leader of the Labour group on Tower Hamlets Borough Council, Cllr Sabina Akhtar Tower Hamlets itself having a strong Bengali community, Labour losing control of the council to the Aspire Party, of Lutfur Rahman, himself Bangladeshi and formerly Labour incidentally, who is the currently serving Tower Hamlets mayor.
Sabina Akhtar’s resignation letter, dated the 26th June, which she posted on social media was both brief but no less pointed:
‘I have just resigned from the Labour Party.
I was the first female speaker of the council from Bangladeshi origin, and I was a proud Labour party member, but I cannot be proud of this party anymore when the leader of the party singles out my community and insults my Bangladeshi identity.
I have defended the party all my life and was very proud of it. But it is clear the direction it is heading is unacceptable to me and my community.’
She echoes the feelings of a great many Bangladeshi’s living in this country and in Akhtar’s community and it wasn’t long before another Labour councillor quit over the same issue as just yesterday afternoon news broke that the first and only Bangladeshi councillor to ever be elected to Walsall Council and former Chair of the Labour group there, Shakila Hussain had resigned, again, laying the blame for her decision firmly at the feet of Keir Starmer and his awful comments that he still will not say the words ‘I’m sorry’ in response to and she did not pull her punches either:
‘It is with regret that I must tender my resignation as a member of the Labour Party with immediate effect.
It is my view that the values of the Labour Party no longer align with my own, nor with the values of my constituents whom I will continue to represent and work for in an independent capacity. In light of recent comments made by Sir Keir Starmer and Jonathan Ashworth in relation to Bangladeshi migrants, I cannot in good conscience associate myself with a party who so readily scapegoat an entire nationality to pander to voters. They refuse to apologise to date.
Furthermore, while I have been vocal in my support for the civilians in Palestine and the calling of an immediate ceasefire from the outset, I feel that I am limited in my capacity as an advocate for this cause by staying in the party.
To stay with the party after recent public comments made by senior members would be an affront to my identity as a British-Bangladeshi Muslim Immigration Solicitor. I will continue to represent constituents and migrants of any, and all, nationalities and speak out against the horror taking place in the Middle East.’
I can feel the heat from the scorchmarks left by that one, a British-Bangladeshi Muslim Immigration Solicitor, she must be the stuff of nightmares for Keir Starmer and his pro Israel migrant bashing factionalism and I especially note that she has also as I have in other videos picked up on the reason for Starmer and Ashworth doing this was for petty political gain, and chose to demonise an entire nation to do so, but they really picked on the wrong one since the truth is, we really do not have an issue in this country regarding Bangladeshi migrants. She also acknowledges the failure for either of them to apologise, and I daresay it won’t have escaped her notice, that Keir Starmer never says sorry.
The other topic causing resignations in recent days though, has been Luke Akehurst, still trying to get elected by virtue of wearing a red rosette and figuring enough of the population of North Durham will vote for him despite being completely invisible, not attending hustings, nobody knowing who he is, I daresay an advantage for him, since the more you know, the less you like him, having essentially parachuted himself into the seat as part of a Labour NEC stitch up, where 6 of them gave themselves shots at safe seats. But not only has Akehurst failed to get local Labour members campaigning for him, having brought up people from down south to do so, Israel Lobbyists at that, just to rub people’s noses in it, but two Labour members of Durham County Council have now quit the party, Sam McMahon and Angela Hanson, over his imposition and they don’t mince their words either, both posted on Facebook explaining their decision. McMahon’s resignation reads:
‘Some of you may have already heard but I wanted to put up this post to confirm that I have resigned from the Labour Party and will be serving the rest of my term on the council as an independent member.
I made this decision after the Labour National Executive chose to parachute Luke Akehurst in as the Labour candidate for our constituency. Local members were not given a chance to select their own candidate and Akehurst has been forced upon us by Labour HQ, he has no connection to North Durham and lives in Oxford. I attended a meeting where local Labour members were given the chance to meet Mr Akehurst for the first time, I did not find his answers to my questions about why he was parachuted in by the national party, nor his controversial stance on the situation in Israel-Palestine, to be satisfactory and therefore I have chosen to resign from the Labour Party.
I can not in good conscience campaign or vote for Mr Akehurst and I am highly disappointed that the national party chose to parachute in a candidate rather than allowing the members to chose a good local voice to represent North Durham. I will continue to represent and advocate for our community in Craghead and South Moor but this will be as an independent councillor.’
Hanson’s was not dissimilar, reading:
‘As some people may already be aware, I have resigned from the Labour Party and I will be serving as an independent councillor for the reminder of the term. My decision to resign wasn’t taken lightly but I felt I could not with a clear conscience continue as a Labour member and support Luke Akehurst as our candidate for MP. This man has been parachuted in from Oxfordshire and had never set foot in North Durham until after he was selected. He has been a lobbyist for Israel for a number of years and has some appalling views about Palestine. There were good local candidates who could have done a great job for North Durham and would have understood the local area and the needs of the people. I feel that the Labour Party has shown complete contempt for the people of North Durham by dumping this man on us without any consultation and I would urge everyone to think long and hard before voting for this man.’
As has been shown in both instances of Akehurst and Bangladesh, it is Labour under Starmer showing contempt for local people, it is about attracted desired voters at the expense potentially of others and the expense of good, locally minded councillors who wish to serve their local areas, but for whom those areas are merely stepping stones to be exploited in Keir Starmer’s lust for power and desperation to get into Number 10 at any cost, but in all likelihood, with little idea of what he’ll do, once he’s in there and if this is the kind of conduct he sees as electable, I certainly agree with Angela Hanson’s final point which certainly extends to a vote for Labour and a vote to put Keir Starmer in government – think long and hard before voting for this man.
Check this video recommendation out here for more detail on who exactly Luke Akehurst has got campaigning for him in North Durham as well, because if these are the sort of people he has to rely on for support, it should come as a warning and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.