Labour councillor resigns from party

Labour councillor Peter North will continue as an independent

A Hull councillor has quit the Labour Party to sit as an independent member.

Hull City councillor Peter North, who represents the Bricknell ward, said he believed Prime Minister Kier Starmer's party was "no longer working towards the social change this country desperately needs".

The Labour Party has been contacted for a response.

The Hull Labour group said North's decision to resign was "deeply saddening" and was a reflection the leadership of the national Labour Party, not his colleagues locally.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, North said his membership of the Labour Party had survived until now because of his belief in Hull's Labour councillors ability "to fight for our city".

The councillor said that belief was no longer enough to balance his lack of faith in the government.

North said he had hoped the Labour Party leadership would have focused on improving living standards for working class people and investing in public services "to reverse the damage done by austerity using a fairer taxation system".

'Anger and division'

"Increasingly we're seeing people who are feeling the effects of austerity turning to duplicitous far-right politicians for quick and easy answers to the hardships they face by demonising minorities and stoking anger," he said.

North's statement continued: "Labour's attempts to neuter the rise of the far-right through talk of 'smashing the gangs' and 'stopping the boats' has only served to draw focus to the hatred they promote and is creating a Britain of mistrust, anger and division."

The Hull Labour Group said its focus was "on delivering for the people of Hull" and it would continue to work "constructively" with North during the remainder of his term.

In a statement the group said: "Peter has been an extremely hard-working councillor, leading from the front, driving positive change in his ward, and making a significant contribution to the work of the Labour Group as a whole."

North is the fourth councillor to become independent this year, after Labour councillor Hester Bridges made the same move in May. Two Liberal Democrat councillors also became independents earlier in the year.

North's defection has altered the political weighting of Hull City Council.

The Liberal Democrats now have 29 councillors, the Labour Party 23, and there are five independents.

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