The truth about those two Labour councillors who defected to the Tories

Suspended Labour Councillors
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Two Labour councillors defected to the Conservative Party this week. We know because Tory chair Brandon Lewis publicly celebrated the moment. But soon after, it emerged that the planned PR coup was more of a PR disaster.

The great defection

Lewis cheerfully announced the defections this week, telling Twitter:

He was joined by the Tory vice-chair for youth, Ben Bradley. He claimed the councillors defected because Labour is being taken over by the “hard-left”.

Read on...

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But it soon became clear that the two councillors may have had other motives for jumping ship.

The councillors

The two Ashfield councillors defecting to the Tories are Lee Anderson and Chris Baron. Both have been suspended by their local Labour group. Anderson was suspended in February of this year over allegations of racism. Baron was suspended last September “due to his poor attendance at meetings and failure to report absences to the relevant party officers”.

If this is what the Tory party considers a PR coup, goodness knows what it considers a PR disaster.

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Featured image via Twitter

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