Elections 2021: Labour expels candidate for town council bid

A Labour candidate seeking election to a new unitary council has been kicked out of the party for standing against another member at town council level.

Graham Croucher had been Labour's candidate for West Northamptonshire Council's Sixfields ward, but also stood as an independent on Northampton Town Council.

Opposition parties accused Labour of "party disunity" and "infighting".

Mr Croucher said: "My name is still on the ballot paper."

Labour confirmed he is no longer a party member.

However, as papers naming candidates and their parties for each ward have already been issued Mr Croucher remains listed as Labour's candidate in Sixfields.

He will also continue as an independent candidate in elections for Northampton Town Council's St James ward.

Both authorities are holding their first elections after being formed following the abolition of Northamptonshire County Council due to financial problems.

In a statement on Facebook, Mr Croucher said he had appealed his exclusion.

He said: "I remain a candidate on the ballot for the Labour Party in the Sixfields division, so for me nothing has changed."

As first reported in NN Journal, Mr Croucher was kicked out of the party for standing against Labour's Rufia Ashraf in St James, an area where he has been chairman of the residents' association for 14 years.

He said: "Unbeknownst to me, the decision to field party political candidates for this parish council election was decided."

He said he was never offered the chance to stand for Labour in St James.

Labour Party rules say it is incompatible with membership to stand or campaign against another Labour Party member.

A Conservative Party spokesman said: "This is a bizarre move by the Labour Party with their own candidates pitched against each other in elections happening on the same day, resulting in an expulsion."

He said people were "rightly concerned that an assumed Labour-endorsed candidate may get elected under false pretences".

"It shows further disunity in the Labour Party from the national level right down to the local," he added.

The Liberal Democrats said it was "extremely hard to believe someone who says he 'didn't know' that Labour would be putting up a candidate for the town council in St James".

"If Graham Croucher wanted to be an independent candidate he should have stood as an independent for West Northants Council too. You can't have it both ways."

They added the new unitary needed "effective, competent opposition and Labour shouldn't be infighting".

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