Thread: The rise of Reform.

Resignation from the Labour Party - Cllr Michael Graham


It is with a heavy heart but a clear conscience that I announce my resignation from the Labour Party.


I entered politics to serve the people - to stand up for fairness, for justice, and for those whose voices too often go unheard. But over recent months, I have watched as the Labour Party has turned its back on the very people it once claimed to represent.


Promises have been made and broken with breathtaking ease - from the betrayal of WASPI women, who were left to shoulder an injustice that still remains unresolved, to the farmers and fishermen who were assured their livelihoods would be protected but now face growing uncertainty and neglect.


Pensioners, too, have seen their support eroded - most notably through the removal of the Winter Fuel Allowance, a move both cruel and short-sighted. And now we must brace for damaging changes to disability benefits, which threaten to leave some of the most vulnerable people in our communities worse off.


Perhaps most disturbingly, the Labour leadership has refused to support a full national inquiry into grooming gangs - a decision that shows a staggering lack of courage and compassion for the survivors who deserve justice, transparency, and meaningful reform. This is not the action of a party committed to protecting the vulnerable or standing for truth.


And through it all, I’ve watched as Keir Starmer cosplays as a patriot while failing to put the people of this country first. His leadership offers no bold vision, no true conviction - only political calculation and hollow rhetoric.


Keir Starmer is the worst Prime Minister of my lifetime. He is completely out of touch - he just doesn’t get it.


A recent meeting with local MPs perfectly illustrated Labour’s disconnect at the national level. We often talk about the ‘Red Wall’ in politics - but in that meeting, it felt like talking to a brick wall.


I can no longer, in good faith, stand under a banner that has strayed so far from its founding principles. The Labour Party has lost its way - and I have lost all faith in its ability to find it again.


I sincerely wish the current local Labour administration the very best in their continued efforts to make our district a place where people want to live, work and enjoy life.


I will continue to serve my constituents to the best of my ability - but I will do so as an independent voice, free from a party that no longer represents the values I believe in.


Cllr Michael Graham

^ Wakefield Council member.

But not joining Reform, Joe?

Joe thats only about 11 million new pals for you by 2050 @ 12oo per day, Utd gotta find fans

Originally Posted by cyrille

I see that today the chancellor will announce billions of £ to be spent in Britain's most deprived regions, having re-written Treasury rules.

Originally Posted by Joe 90

No rules to be rewritten, they just wing it.

It looks like you need to be brought up to speed, Joe.

The big mistake Labour think Nigel Farage has made - and how the chancellor hopes to capitalise | Politics News | Sky News

Next week, the chancellor will unveil the first spending review since 2021. It will set Whitehall budgets for the remainder of this parliament and it will be a big moment for a government struggling to tell a story about what it is trying to achieve to voters.

Rachel Reeves, flanked by transport workers in a bus depot in Rochdale, knows it. She came to the North West armed with £15bn of funding for trains, trams and buses across the Midlands and the North.Much more will be announced next week when the chancellor sets out her capital spending plans for the remainder of the parliament, having loosened her fiscal rules in the budget for capital investment.

More is coming. Next week, the chancellor is expected to announce plans to spend billions more on a new railway line between Manchester and Liverpool, as well as other transport schemes for northern towns and cities. This will be the backbone of the "Northern Arc" that Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has been arguing for as a northern version to the much-vaunted Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor.

Labour will pour £113bn into capital investment over the course of this parliament and there is an economic and political imperative for a chancellor to talk up capital spending in rail and roads, houses, power stations. On the economic side, she is in search for growth and hopes investment in infrastructure will create jobs and fire up the economy.


On the politics, Labour need to show voters in their red wall seats that it is the Starmer government and not Nigel Farage that will improve the lives of working people.

Ms Reeves spent a lot of time in her speech talking about the need to invest right across the country. She is overhauling the Treasury's "Green Book" that assesses value for money for public projects to make sure that funding decisions don't just get concentrated in the South East but are weighted to the Midlands and the North.

She also, in reiterating her commitment to her fiscal rule to not borrow to fund day-to-day government spending (the annual budgets for our schools, councils, courts, police, hospitals), sought to draw out the "choice" between Labour and Reform, as Labour seeks to capitalise on Mr Farage's decision last week to promise up to £80bn worth of new spending - including scrapping the two-child benefit cap and increasing winter fuel payments - while not explaining exactly how they could be paid for.

Expect to hear lots more from Labour in the coming weeks about how Mr Farage is an iteration of Liz Truss, ready to pursue "fantasy economics" and trash the economy.

Labour are gleeful that Mr Farage has opened up this line of attack and think it was an uncharacteristic political misstep from the Reform leader.

Originally Posted by Joe 90

Two Tier has plans for Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands next.

He's on a mission!
From whomever it remains to be seen....


Answer the question Ciz.

Called it!

You 'called it' with utter gibberish?

'From whomever it remains to be seen...'?

What on God's earth are you burbling about, you absurd simpleton?

UK-EU Agreement in Respect of Gibraltar: Joint statement - GOV.UK

So you 'called' something that would have been scheduled months ago.

And the big 'betrayal' news is...Gibralter is going to start charging VAT, prior to joining the EU.

Something which was agreed upon by all parties and announced on December 31st 2020.

Berk.

Another U-Turn by Two Tier Kier because of Reform.

Keir Starmer to launch national inquiry into grooming gangs | Politics | The Guardian

Did we miss the U-turn on winter fuel payments? Can we give reform credit for that Labour U-turn?


Keir Starmer announces U-turn on winter fuel payment cuts - BBC News


Starmer announces U-turn on winter fuel payment cuts

21 May 2025

Sir Keir Starmer has announced plans to ease cuts to winter fuel payments, in a U-turn following mounting political pressure in recent weeks.

More than 10 million pensioners lost out on the payments, worth up to £300, when the pension top-up became means-tested last year.

Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions, Sir Keir said ministers would change the threshold to allow "more pensioners" to qualify again.

But it remains unclear how many will regain their entitlement for the payments, or when the changes will take effect.

Sir Keir said the policy would be changed at the autumn Budget, adding ministers would only "make decisions we can afford".

but it wasnt more than a few weeks ago that starmer, (and mp jess phillips) accused anyone in favour of a national inquiry into the cover up over the pakistani rape gangs as being a far right racist troublemaker.

surely not another u turn?

Originally Posted by taxexile

pakistani rape gangs

And this is how they should be labelled!

None of this grooming gangs watered down description.

'Enforce tariffs'

Now I wonder why that word came up?



Anyway, the graphic looks like a good way of communicating for people who cannot adequately do so in their first language.

repeat after me joe,

"diversity is our strength"

They look pleasant enough chaps in their suits. Many defendants wouldn't bother dressing up for their day in court.

Man accused of assaulting police at Manchester Airport 'headbutted' a traveller, court hears | UK News | Sky News

A man accused of assaulting police at Manchester Airport was "aggressive" and "headbutted" a traveller earlier, a witness has told a court.


The first incident took place at a Starbucks at terminal two of the airport and led to police being called, Liverpool Crown Court heard.


When officers arrived, they traced brothers Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 20, and Muhammad Amaad, 26, who were leaving the airport after picking up their mother.


Police arrived to arrest the pair as they went to pay for parking. But the brothers are alleged to have assaulted three officers after using a "high level of violence" to resist arrest.


The jury has been shown CCTV of both incidents.


The siblings, from Rochdale in Greater Manchester, deny the allegations on 23 July last year and claim self-defence.


Traveller Abdulkareem Ismaeil and Amaaz's mother were on the same flight, on which "something happened" that upset her, the jury heard.

Later, while leaving the airport with his wife and three young children, he stopped at Starbucks, where the defendant's mother pointed him out to her sons.


The manager of the Starbucks, Cameron Cartledge, told the court he heard "raised voices" and went to the door, where he saw a man - identified as Amaaz - "quite close" to Mr Ismaeil and "shouting at him".


Mr Cartledge said the shouting was in a foreign language he did not understand.


"Blue track-suit man seemed quite aggressive, obviously annoyed about something, I don't know what. Blue track-suit man was aggressively shouting.


"Because his body language, his tone of voice was quite aggressive."

Mr Cartledge continued: "There was arguing, I don't know what was being said, then blue track-suit man headbutted the man we see in the black.


"He got him in the face. It did not look like it hurt Mr Ismaeil much but it was forceful enough to make him stagger back into the counter."


Amaaz then threw two punches, Mr Cartledge said, adding that he thought they landed on Mr Ismaeil's shoulder. The two men were then split up, he added.


When asked why he called the police, the witness replied: "Well, he had just assaulted him."

Amaaz denies one count of assault to Mr Ismaeil and three counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm to three police officers: PC Zachary Marsden, PC Ellie Cook and PC Lydia Ward.

His brother, Amaad, denies one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm to PC Marsden.

I wonder why the charges were downgraded to ABH?

I would have thought breaking a police woman's nose was GBH at least.

I fear these two scrotes will get less time than Lucy Connelly.

They should be deported and there mum who had been living in Pakistan on PIP benefits for the last two years.

The British public are expecting justice and no two tier policing in this case.

PC Zachary Marsden, PC Ellie Cook and PC Lydia Ward.

I’m sure most TD contributors will join me in hoping they have made full recoveries, and haven’t been put off the force by meat headed morons insulting their professionalism.