As I recall, our three local MP's were all foisted on us by The Party's London HQ, rather than being selected by local Members. The reason given, at that time was that it was important to have more Lady MP's on representing The Party. Now, according to BBC's, Look North, news programme, HQ has gone one further and replaced the Council Leader with their own selection. The reason, they do not think that the local party has done enough in terms of Council Seats, to take advantage of the current weakness of the Tory Party. Look North went on to say that Sunderland won six extra Seats in the recent Council election. In contrast, South Tyneside where in 2018 The Party held 53 of 54 Seats, they lost 10 more taking their number down to 28. No hint of any interference there though. I worked in South Shield for many years and a more solid Labour town I can not imagine. No doubt the Council's fail to resolve a local Industrial Dispute was responsible, at least in part for this debacle. But to have lost almost half their seats in six years surely can not be satisfactory. Had The Labour Party told The Electorate BEFORE the vote, what they planned to do, I wonder , would the outcome have been the same? I have little time for Party Politics on a national level and even less time on a local level. Our Local Authority seems to have overseen nothing but lethargy in the area for years. HOWEVER, over the last few years, perhaps coincidentally, since the current holder of the Office, has been Council Leader, things have improved. It's not perfect, but it has been moving in the right direction. If it doesn't continue to move in this 'right direction', I hope that Labour HQ will accept it's full share of the blame. And more to the point, why should any of us vote for a Party that has shown a complete contempt for the electorate over so many years. The Party obviously feel that we are not capable of thinking for ourselves at all. Meanwhile I would like to thank the ousted Cllr Graeme Miller for his work since 2018. Probably the most successful leader since our Council, with government help, brought us Nissan. Anger as Labour councillors blocked from choosing a leader in Sunderland (sunderlandecho.com)
It has been building for a while in South Tyneside. John Robertson was voted in as independent and since then he is constantly showing everyone on social media the fraud that has been taking place under the Labour council. He’s managed to do it through the FOI act and the top guy, Ian Malcolm, has been using his works credit card for his own personal use, expensive meals down in London etc. On the current trajectory, South Tyneside will be run by the Independents in another 4 or 5 year.
