A DISGRUNTLED Coventry City Councillor has quit the Labour Party, accusing it of ‘failing to stand up for working people’.
Coun Grace Lewis has thrown her support behind the new party being formed by Coventry South MP Zarah sultana and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Resigning from Labour after a five-year membership, the Westwood councillor will now sit as an Independent.
Coun Lewis expressed her ‘deep dissatisfaction’ with Labour’s policies and its ‘failure to deliver real change for working class communities across Coventry’.
She said: “This is not the change people voted for, not the change I joined the Labour party for when I was 16, and certainly not the change which people deserve.”
She slammed the party’s stance on austerity, cuts to support for disabled people, keeping the two-child benefit cap, cuts to Winter Fuel Payments, and its ‘failure to tackle the crisis of local government finance’.
She said: “In Coventry, Labour’s cuts have extended to vital services, with most recent proposals included reduction of library services.
“Coventry City Council has failed to stand up for working people. When workers fight for decent living standards, the Labour Council responds by strike-breaking, undermining unions – the very foundations which the party was founded to defend.”
She said she felt a ‘sense of genuine political hope for the first time in a long time’ when Ms Sultana and Mr Corbyn announced their new party.
She added: “From picket lines to the Council Chamber, I’ll keep fighting to put power and wealth back into the hands of the many, not the few.”
Zarah Sultana said: “Grace is a formidable presence in local government and I’m proud to welcome her with open arms to the new political party we are building. I look forward to working alongside Grace as we fight for a better future for Coventry and for the country.”
West Midlands Labour has been contracted for comment.
Coun Lewis was first elected to Coventry City Council in May 2024 at the age of 20, beating the incumbent Conservative councillor by 521 votes.
Ms Sultana resigned from Labour last month and announced the formation of the as-yet-unnamed new party with Mr Corbyn last week. Since then, over 600,000 people have signed up to the new party. Visit www.yourparty.uk for more information.
