City Labour group loses third person in PM protest

A SPEECH by the Labour Prime Minister which suggested the UK risked becoming “an island of strangers” has played a part in the loss of a third Plymouth Labour councillor in as many days.

- CARL EVE

Sir Keir Starmer’s speech has already led to criticism by his own backbenchers in Parliament, as well as trade unions and charities, who have suggested it had more in common with the far right and Enoch Powell ‘rivers of blood’ speech in 1968 rather than the traditional Labour party. Critics have even condemned his speech as an attempt to pander to Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK party.

This week it was revealed that Cllr Zoe Reilly, who represents the Honicknowle ward, had chosen to leave the Plymouth Labour Group and the Labour Party and sit as an Independent member on Plymouth City Council.