Cumberland: another councillor leaves Labour, this time to go Green

A THIRD Labour member of Cumberland Council has resigned because she feels that it is not the same party that she originally joined.

Councillor Helen Tucker (Cockermouth North, Labour) issued her statement on Wednesday (May 7) because “the decisions and policies coming from Westminster no longer align with my values”.

Her resignation follows those of councillor Linda Jones-Bulman (Cleator Moor East and Frizington, Independent) and councillor Mike Hawkins (Mirehouse, Independent) who are also both former Labour councillors.

In her statement Cllr Tucker, who will become a member of the Green Party, said:

I have, today, resigned my Labour Party membership.

My decision has been a long time in the making and is not one I took lightly. Today’s Labour Party is not the party I joined – the decisions and policies coming from Westminster no longer align with my values.

I have come to realise that the policies of the Green Party more closely align with my own thoughts, so I have joined the Greens.

Education needs more funding, as especially SEND children are being let down

Cllr Tucker, whose day job is working as a teacher, said she had seen first-hand how difficult it has become in the education sector. She added:

Since 2010, schools in Cumberland have lost almost £10 million in funding.

This means less support for our children, particularly those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), fewer resources, and an ever-increasing workload.

The Government’s unwillingness to fully fund education staff pay awards means that any increase will have to come from existing school budgets – raising the possibility of redundancies and further cuts within schools.

Scrap the two-child limit and lift children out of poverty

If the Government were serious about reducing child poverty and helping all children thrive, it would scrap the two-child limit – yet it refuses to do so.

According to the Child Poverty Action Group, ‘scrapping the two-child limit would lift 350,000 children out of poverty and mean 700,000 children are in less deep poverty’.

She also cited a funding crisis within the NHS mental health services – at a time of rapidly rising need – as well as the clumsy way the changes made to Winter Fuel Allowances were handled.

She said: 

The government’s own internal modelling shows that these changes will push about 50,000more people into relative poverty this year, and another 50,000 by the end of the decade.

The Labour Government inherited a £22bn black hole – but there are other, fairer ways to balance the budget.

Proportional representation and Palestinian suffering

Cllr Tucker said that in 2022 the Labour Party Conference voted overwhelmingly to back a motion calling for proportional representation to replace the existing first past the post (FPTP) system.

She added:

Support for PR is strong – a recent poll by YouGov found almost half of Britons, 49 per cent, would support the introduction of a PR system, almost twice as many as the 26 per cent who favour retaining our present FPTP system. Despite this, the motion has been ignored by party leadership.

The United Nations rightly named what is happening in Gaza as genocide. Although some restrictions on arms sales to Israel have been announced, this represents only a small proportion of over 360 licences issued.

This makes it complicit in the killing of civilians happening every day across the occupied Palestinian territory. I can no longer remain in a party which prioritise perceived security or economic advantage over the UK’s legal and moral obligations.

I still represent the people of Cockermouth North on Cumberland Council; residents can contact me anytime with any issue and I will do what I can to help.

Article by Ian Duncan, LDRS