TWO well-known Peterborough councillors have been suspended by the Labour Party, meaning that over THIRTY-FIVE Labour politicians have now been either suspended, arrested, or convicted in the past six months alone.
Controversial former local Labour party leader Ed Murphy has been suspended along with Councillor Heather Skibsted.
The reason for their suspension has not yet been confirmed.
The pair are now registered on the council’s website as independents, leaving the local Labour party with just 15 out of 60 seats.
Cllr Murphy, who came under fire during the EU referendum for calling Brexit voters in the eurosceptic city ‘thick’, has not yet commented.
On 9th November 2017, the former Labour Parliamentary candidate also came under fire after proposing Alan Bull as a candidate for the local elections, despite having been shown evidence of his social media activity which included a post calling the Holocaust a “hoax”.
Cllr Skibsted said that her suspension “is an internal Labour Party matter about which I am unable to provide any further information.”
“I will continue to actively serve and support the residents of Orton Longueville ward with any issues that may affect them, as I have the past two years since I was elected in 2019, currently as an independent councillor.”
Meanwhile, Peterborough’s popular Tory MP, Paul Bristow, suggested that the two councillors should allow their seat to be contested, considering that they were voted in as Labour candidates, not independents.
“Two Labour councillors out of the #Peterborough Labour Group.” he wrote on Facebook. “Just before the election. As they are no longer Labour councillors (but were elected as Labour), perhaps voters should get a say on 6 May?
“Peterborough Labour are falling apart. They aren’t fit to run our City.”
Peterborough Labour leader Shaz Nawaz, who was slammed during the Peterborough by-election after VoteWatch revealed he had used convicted vote-rigger Tariq Mahmood to win his seat, has declined to comment.
The local Peterborough Labour group have long been blighted by scandals – from vote-rigging to antisemitism and even paedophilia. The branch made national headlines after their denial of using a convicted vote-rigger was proven to be a lie.
Labour’s rabble in Peterborough, however, aren’t the only branch continuously sliding into scandal, with other thirty-five Labour politicians being either arrested, charged, or suspended in the past six months alone.
Their crimes and wrongdoings include child neglect, paedophilia, fraud, and vote-rigging.
To date, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has failed to comment on any of the individual cases.
