Liverpool Labour resignation: Ex-lord mayor 'treated with utter contempt'

Anna Rothery will now sit as an independent councillor after quitting the Labour party

A former lord mayor of Liverpool, who has served as a city councillor for 15 years, has announced she has quit Labour after having her name "dragged through the mud" by the party.

Anna Rothery said she was "treated with utter contempt" by Labour after "having the temerity" of offering herself as a candidate for the city's elected mayor.

Ms Rothery took legal action against the party over its selection process.

The Labour party has been approached for comment.

Ms Rothery, who represents the Princes Park ward, became Liverpool's first black lord mayor in 2019.

In May, she was one of three candidates in the running to stand for Labour in the city's mayoral election in May, but the party scrapped its list of all candidates in February with no explanation.

She subsequently lost a High Court bid to force the party to include her on a new list.

Ms Rothery said Sir Keir Starmer's decision to write an opinion column in The Sun newspaper was "unforgivable"

In her resignation letter to Labour's general secretary, she said she would now sit as an independent councillor as the party no longer reflected her own political beliefs.

She said Labour's national leadership was "failing in its duty to effectively oppose the government's attacks on our people" and was "more interested carrying out internal party vendettas than standing up for our people, our black community and our LGBTQIA community".

"I was treated with utter contempt, with my name dragged through the mud for having the temerity of offering myself as a candidate for Liverpool's elected mayor," she said.

She said that Sir Keir Starmer's decision "to actively engage and seek support from the Murdoch press despite the feelings of the whole of Merseyside", a reference to the Labour leader's opinion column in The Sun newspaper in October, was "unforgivable".

However, she added that "petty personality politics wastes time and provokes demoralisation and I want to spend my time supporting the people of our great city".

Her announcement follows the resignation of fellow Liverpool councillor Sarah Morton, who quit the party on Friday.

Analysis

By Claire Hamilton, BBC political reporter for Merseyside

Anna Rothery began the year by putting herself forward to be Labour's candidate for the mayor of Liverpool, but now she has quit the party with a stinging attack on its leader.

The chaotic selection process has clearly bruised her and facing the party you've been elected to represent across a courtroom cannot be a happy place to be.

Her brief campaign to be Labour's mayoral candidate had backing from former leader Jeremy Corbyn and she has amassed thousands of followers on social media, but any ambitions of becoming a Labour MP are now dashed, though her place in the city's history is assured as its first black lord mayor.

Her resignation from the party is the second from a Liverpool Labour councillor in the space of a few days and both criticised a move to the right by Sir Keir.

The question now is, will others follow?

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