Thursday, January 25, 2018

Two prominent Lib Dems join the Labour Party (and a third is rejected)

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In the past few days I have seen reports of two prominent Liberal Democrats leaving us for the Labour Party.
  • Stephen Knight, a long-serving councillor in Richmond upon Thames who has also been a member of the London Authority in his time.
  • Chris Foote Wood, a veteran councillor and parliamentary and Euro candidate perhaps best known for being Victoria Wood's brother.
Like local by-elections, these defections are close to meaningless individually but can form a significant pattern over time.

And if good people are giving up on the Liberal Democrats then we should be worried at the pattern we currently see.
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Mind you, changing parties is not as easy as it sounds.

Darren Fower, a Lib Dem councillor in Peterborough who thought he had joined Labour, has been told by its constituency party that he is not welcome.
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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous25 January, 2018 23:26

    Certainly, it's harder and harder to see what the point of the Lib Dems is.

    At least there used to be an element of liberalism there, but now it seems very much to have been supplanted by "I disapprove of what you do, so let's ban it".

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  2. Anonymous26 January, 2018 05:49

    Changing parties is NOT as easy as it sounds, surely?

    Knights interest in the Party waned visibly when, as a sitting GLA List member, he was reselected in an unpromising position on the list for the last elections; victim of a mix of procedure prioritising women and perhaps a failure to convince members of his worth. In the event we only held one seat on the Assembly. With his partner having already defected to the pro-Brexit, anti-Semitic, misogynistic Labour Party, what was a convinced Liberal to do?

    I have some sympathy with your correspondent about the Banning tendency in the Party - step forward Ms Swinson - but cannot see that Labour is any better in this respect

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  3. Jonathan Calder26 January, 2018 22:13

    Thank you Anonymous 2.

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  4. Anonymous29 January, 2018 15:41

    I don't know much about Stephen Knights, but I do remember a London friend complaining about his fondness for Labour just after he had been voted in as second on the London list. Four years ago? If he started distancing himself from the LibDems then, it is no wonder that the electorate remembered and placed him further down the list for 2018.

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  5. billovitch03 October, 2019 10:22

    Anonymous 2,

    Can you point to any documented (evidence-based) instances of antisemitism and misogyny in the Labour Party? If not please withdraw your accusation.

    PS People on Panorama making claims with no supporting evidence doesn't count.

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