Leicester: Deselected Labour councillors defect to Conservatives

Hemant Rae Bhatia and Paul Westley have left Labour and joined the Conservatives

Two Leicester councillors have defected to the Conservative Party after being deselected by Labour.

Paul Westley and Hemant Rae Bhatia will stand for the Tories in the Beaumont Leys ward at the upcoming local elections on 4 May, running against new Labour candidates.

It comes as 19 sitting councillors were told by Labour they would not be able to defend their seat.

The Labour Party has been contacted for comment.

The Guardian reported an email from Labour's regional director, Richard Oliver, to local branches in Leicester, which said an NEC panel had been convened to select the city's candidates due to "concerns about the process".

'Labour is broken'

Mr Westley, a Labour councillor since 1995, said he could no longer serve for a party which "doesn't listen to local people".

"I don't feel my opinions have changed too much over the past 28 years but the Labour Party that I was a part of back then is very different to the Labour Party of today," he said.

"The party I am joining will put local people first."

The defections come as 19 Labour councillors were deselected

Mr Bhatia added: "The Labour Party in Leicester is broken, as a city we need change and that's why I am joining the party which truly represents local people and is fighting for local issues, giving local people a genuine voice."

Other councillors who were deselected by Labour have said they will be standing as independent members for their wards or joining rival parties.

Castle ward councillor Patrick Kitterick announced his defection to the Green Party last week, saying Labour both locally and nationally was "crushing debate," according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The deselected Leicester Labour councillors:

• Ruma Ali - Humberstone and Hamilton

• Padmini Chamund - Belgrave

• Luis Fonseca - North Evington

• Stephan Gee - Thurncourt

• Rashmikant Joshi - North Evington

• Shahid Khan - Evington

• Patrick Kitterick - Castle

• Kirk Master - Stoneygate

• Jacky Nangreave - Westcote

• Rita Patel - Rushey Mead

• Hemant Rae Bhatia - Beaumont Leys

• Sharmen Rahman - Stoneygate

• Gurinder Singh Sandhu - Humberstone and Hamilton

• Deborah Sangster - Castle

• Nita Solanki - Belgrave

• Aminur Thalukdar - Stoneygate

• Mahendra Valand - Belgrave

• Paul Westley - Beaumont Leys

• Ross Willmott - Rushey Mead