MASSIVE DEFECTION FROM LABOUR TO THE LIB DEMS (Derby City Liberal Democrats)

Derby City Liberal Democrats <info@derbycitylibdems.org.uk>

MASSIVE DEFECTION FROM LABOUR TO THE LIB DEMS

August 25, 2006 5:04 PM

Criticism of Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett's handling of the Lebanon crisis has put her own future position as a Derby MP in peril. Around 40 members of Mrs Beckett's Derby South Labour Party, have today left Labour in disgust to join the Liberal Democrats.

The defectors include the Chairman of the City's Arboretum branch, three members of Mrs Beckett's General (Executive) Committee, an ex City and County Councillor and numerous other Labour members and activists.

Mr Rawail Peeno ex-Chairman of the city's Arboretum branch Labour Party said, "We could not remain in the Labour Party after their mishandling of the Lebanon crisis. We wanted Margaret Beckett to call for a ceasefire and an end to the bloodshed. When she refused to back a ceasefire and instead sided with George W Bush it was the breaking point for us.

"New Labour have abandoned the beliefs that led me and thousands of others to join Labour in the first place. We have now joined the Lib Dems whose policies of respect for international law and good quality public services are policies that have support in every community across Britain.

Cllr Lucy Care, Lib Dem deputy leader in Derby said "I am delighted to welcome into the party so many able and talented ex-Labour members. These are people who for years were solid Labour but are now turning to the Lib Dems because they see that on the Lebanon crisis, the Iraq War and the delivery of every day services it is the Lib Dems who are the progressive choice in British politics today.

"In recent local elections the Lib Dems won three-quarters of the wards in Mrs Beckett's Derby South seat. New Labour are being rejected by the people of Derby, they have lost touch with local people. These mass-defections in Mrs Beckett's backyard show that the whole New Labour project and the coalition of support they had is decaying away".