Last month the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) welcomed the Lydney Labour councillor Steve Stockham into our anti-austerity alliance of socialists, trade unionists and working class community campaigners (see https://www.tusc.org.uk/17665/25-04-2022/tusc-welcomes-labour-councillor-as-mood-to-resist-starmers-tory-lite-party-grows).
This month another former Labour councillor, Lynne Cooney, representing the Trinity ward on Louth Town Council in Lincolnshire, has taken the same step, having resigned from the Labour Party in March.
“I have been a Labour councillor for almost three years” Lynne said, in a statement explaining her decision that is being distributed throughout her ward. “I joined Labour under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership because I identified with the need for compassion, for empathy and to support those who needed someone to hear them and help them”.
“As a town councillor I spoke at the council precept meeting in favour of keeping the council tax down. I campaigned against the stealth tax for recycling bins and was interviewed on Look North and in the local papers. I’ve also written to the local MP regarding Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders for disabled patients during COVID, sexual assaults in educational settings, housing standards for homes owned by housing associations and rent rises”.
“I work with several community groups in Louth, referring people to food banks and delivering food hampers. I am very visible and vocal in my community and passionate about disability rights. I’ve also written two reports on access around the town for people with mobility issues and spoken out on the latest active travel plan in Louth which disadvantages disabled and vulnerable groups”.
“Keir Starmer has, I believe, betrayed the fundamental principles of Labour and failed to hold the Tories to account. Increasingly I found it harder and harder to hold on in the faint hope that the socialists within the party would find a way back”.
“As a SEND parent, I’ve seen the funding for social care, for NHS paediatrics and assessments fall, and seen children failed by an education system unable to support their needs. People being plunged into poverty, zero hours contracts throwing workers into uncertain futures”.
“Under Labour I had no voice, which is why I chose to resign, and now align myself to the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), so I can raise my voice. I can with others take the fight to the council and Westminster and start trying to change the bad political choices of austerity and privatisation made by both the Tories and Labour”.
TUSC stood over 250 candidates in the council elections on May 5th, polling just under 30,000 votes. The coalition’s core policies for local councils – the minimum pledges that have to be made in order to become a TUSC local election candidate or councillor – can be found at https://www.tusc.org.uk/17627/22-02-2022/tuscs-core-policy-platform-for-the-may-2022-local-elections