The councillor claims the Labour Party no longer serves the “ordinary people” it was elected to represent
A Welsh Labour councillor has stepped down from the party and issued a scathing criticism about its leadership. Helen Cunningham, who has served as Labour councillor for the Llanhilleth ward since 2022 and also held a deputy leadership role on Blaenau Gwent council, claimed the party no longer serves the “ordinary people” it was elected to represent.
In her strongly worded resignation letter, Ms Cunningham said she has “grown increasingly uneasy with the leadership” of the Labour Party. Her resignation came just hours after a prominent Labour backbencher accused the party leader Keir Starmer of humiliating leading Welsh politicians amid rising anger at the Prime Minister in the Senedd.
Blaenau Gwent MS Alun Davies criticised Mr Starmer in a Senedd debate after the Prime Minister was accused of rolling back devolution by directly funding local authorities in Wales in devolved areas.
Mr Davies said: “It is not fair that Wales is treated the way it is, and it is not fair that Welsh Ministers are humiliated—and we saw it this afternoon—having to run to catch up because they don’t know what’s being said from London.
“It’s not fair that Welsh Ministers need to try to explain that rail funding is fair when it’s self-evidently not, that Barnett is fair when it is self-evidently not.
“That is not fair. It is not fair for this Government, it is not fair for this Parliament, but more importantly it is not fair for our people. So, we will campaign for equality over the coming months. We will campaign for the equality of people, as we’ve done in the Labour movement through our history.”
In her resignation letter, councillor Cunningham accused the Labour Party of having a lack of vision and values, which she says does her constituents a disservice. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here.
Ms Cunningham also stood for the Labour Party in the 2021 Senedd election.
Her statement said: “I have chosen to resign my membership of the Labour Party, having grown increasingly uneasy with the leadership. A lack of vision, values and credible democratic processes deeply troubles me. It does the people of Blaenau Gwent a disservice.
“Attempts to forge a transparent, democratic and political path are stifled. The undermining of mine and other councillors efforts to hold our council to the highest standards, including for flooded communities, to combat poverty, and for future generations has been a sobering spectacle. So too the oversight and allocation of replacement EU and regional development funds, the downplaying of local activities of the far right and the orchestrated silence on genocide in Gaza, where the value of pension funds apparently commands greater importance than Palestinian lives.
“A toxic culture and intolerable working conditions not only go unchecked, but are actively encouraged.
“The UK Labour Party’s lurch to the right, led by factionalists intent on power, but with no coherent plan to wield it for the betterment of ordinary people’s lives, has committed the greatest betrayal of a generation; abandoning those it was founded to serve and working against their interests.
“I have the utmost respect for many Labour councillors I have had the privilege of working with. Their camaraderie has been invaluable. I am grateful to many others from the wider Labour movement in Wales for their support and generous advice.”
“I will continue to serve the people of the Llanhilleth Ward on the basis of the socialist values I hold and was elected on.”
The Welsh Green Party also announced that another Blaenau Gwent Labour councillor, Sonia Behr, had defected to it. Councillor Behr, who represents Nantyglo, said: “I no longer believe Labour is willing to confront the scale of inequality facing the UK.”
The criticism of the Labour Party and its leadership comes a week after it was revealed that eleven backbench Labour MSs, more than a third of MSs representing Labour in the Senedd, said the UK Government is not only failing to deliver on promises to hand more powers to Wales but is “rolling back” on what is already devolved through its policy on post-EU funding for communities.
