SWLScouncillor – By Ed Chatterton and Mark Andrews
A Labour councillor who launched a scathing attack on the Prime Minister has been expelled from the party and boasted: “I’ll take it as a badge of honour.”
Steve Edwards, a member of Dudley Council, branded Sir Keir Starmer ‘a liar’ in a blistering attack in December following a by-election defeat.
He accused the PM of of ‘abandoning his promises’ and ‘turning his back on working class people’ in a letter he posted on social media.
Within a matter of days, Mr Edwards received a response to say that his membership to the Labour party had been “revoked”.
He has now spoken about being booted out of the party on Friday (7/2) and says he has no regrets about his outburst.
Mr Edwards said: “For me, I was elected to represent the working class, not the Labour Party.
“Yes, I did it because I believed the Labour Party was the best vehicle.
“But now the Labour Party have foregone all their principles for the reason I joined.
“I’ll take it as a badge of honour for Keir Starmer to get so annoyed and kick me out for representing the working class.”
Mr Edwards, who had stood as an independent in 2021, rejoined the Labour Party in 2022, and was one of three successful candidates in the Brockmoor and Pensnett ward at last year’s election.
Despite making significant gains, Labour failed to take control of the council, which had been led by the Tories for the past eight years.
He said that despite some reservations about Sir Keir’s leadership style, he happily campaigned for the party at the last general election.
He added: “I was hopefully looking forward to getting a Labour government that would come in and look after the working class, which is why the Labour government is in existence, to support the working class, to promote the working class and to be representative of the working class..
“I campaigned for Keir Starmer to become Prime Minister. But in reality, six or seven months before his election, I was feeling I had certain reservations about him, and from things he was saying.
“He was staying silent on some stuff that was attacks on the working class by the Conservative government.
“I was thinking ‘hopefully he’s playing a long game’ and we’ll get in and come out fully in support of the working class.”
But Mr Edwards said he was quickly disappointed by the direction the new Government was taking.
In the letter, he also criticised them for cutting pensioners’ winter fuel allowance and forcing local authorities to increase council tax.
He added: “He got elected on various promises to look after the pensioners, to ensure children were fed, to get children out of poverty.
“And within weeks of getting elected, all that was up in the air, and he went back on everything he said he was going to do.
“We had the winter fuel allowance, which was taking money off pensioners, I think the cut-off point was about £11,000 a year.
“The national minimum wage is what, 19-20 grand a year now?
“So if the Government, on the one hand, is saying people need 20 grand a year just to survive, how can he cut off winter fuel allowance for somebody on 11 grand?
“So that was the big catalyst for me to start attacking Keir Starmer’s principles and policies, because I thought he went back on everything he originally stood for.”
He said he noticed a distinct change of mood among the public when his ward colleague Councillor Judy Foster resigned last year, sparking a by-election.
While Brockmoor and Pensnett was regarded as a traditional Labour stronghold, the party came third, behind the Conservatives, who took the seat, and Reform UK in second.
He added: “On the doorstep, everybody was telling us they’re moving in the direction of Reform, because Keir Starmer has betrayed the working class and gone back on everything he said he was going to do for the working class.
“So at that point, I put a post on Facebook, you know, calling out Keir Starmer, that had quite a lot of attention.
“We’ve seen in recent weeks, the bashing of people on benefits as if they’re the issue with this country, and they’re causing all the problems.
“You see people like Liz Kendall blaming people on benefits and saying winter fuel allowance needs to be stopped while they’re all getting their benefits.
“They’re all getting their heating allowance, their second home allowance, they’re taking every allowance and every benefit they can, while pointing their finger at the worst off in society, who are the very people they were elected to represent.
“I’m more annoyed at Keir Starmer for how he is acting as leader of the Labour Party, than I am for the Conservatives.
“I expect certain things from the Conservatives, which I never expected from the Labour Party.”
Mr Edwards said he was not surprised to be expelled from the Labour Party, although he was taken aback by the speed with which it acted.
He added: “I was surprised by how quick it was. I think I wrote to Keir Starmer on the Monday, and by the Friday morning I’ve been told my membership had been terminated.
“Whether it’s just somebody within the national office saying, ‘look, let’s get rid of this lad, he’s shouting too much in the support of the working class, so we need to keep his voice quiet’.
“But it seems to have had the opposite effect, because I’m sitting here now doing TV and radio and newspaper interviews. It’s a bit of a badge of honour.”
Mr Edwards said he intended to serve out his term on the council as an independent, and did not plan to join any other party.
He said: “The problem I have with parties at the minute is, if you look at the leaders of all the political parties, regardless of whether some of the policies are amicable, there’s nobody who really represents the working class.
“There’s nobody who speaks with a regional accent, there’s nobody who gets the spellings wrong or makes mistakes.
“We’ve just got a bunch of rich people who think ‘we’ll take control’.
“So we all end up with a monolithic thing, a bunch of establishment stooges who want to lead the working class off the edge of a cliff.”
Following the by-election defeat on December 19, Mr Edwards made his damning comments on X, which were to later land him in trouble.
He wrote: “Thank you to everyone in Brockmoor and Pensnett who held their nose and voted Labour in the borough by-election on December 19. Unfortunately, we came third.
“The over-riding message on the doorstep was anti-Starmer and rightly so. Sir Keir Starmer’s attack on the working class, our children and parents/grandparents is unjustifiable.
“He lied to us all to get elected and does not deserve to be the leader of the Labour Party.
“Good, honest councillors will lose their seats because of Keir Starmer’s actions and his attack on working-class people.
“I hope that election results such as this Labour coming third in a seat that only six months ago became one of our safest seats will be the kick up the a**e the national Labour Party needs. But the truth is I don’t think Starmer gives a damn.
“I stay in the party hoping he is booted out and a proper working-class person, not an Establishment stooge, gets to lead it again.
“Your local councillors will continue to work hard and follow the traditional Labour values in spite of Starmer’s actions.”
ENDS
