Third councillor leaves Labour Party

Statement posted to Facebook by Cllr Daniel Anderson on 5 August 2020

I have today resigned from the Labour Party.

On the 28th February 2020 the Labour Party’s Governance & Legal Unit (GLU) suspended me, for allegedly transgressing rule ( 2.I.8 ). However, and to date, the GLU has failed to explain the full reasons for my suspension. Nor have they had the decency to respond to any communications I have sent seeking clarification, which is a betrayal of natural justice. This, in spite of Cllr Nesil Caliskan, leader of Enfield Council, publicly stating that the reason for my suspension is directly related to the alleged findings of an internal investigation by Enfield Council’s monitoring officer that was and is still - 6 months later - subject to appeal to the councillor conduct committee.

Furthermore, though the said letter stated that I was to remain subject to the Labour Group whip, Cllr Caliskan nonetheless violated the terms of my suspension by choosing to remove me from all Group communications, and at the council AGM last month I was not put on any council committees or panels, which has limited my representational role.

Again, in spite of Cllr Caliskan’s actions, the GLU have failed to take any action against her.

Significantly, the GLU has not explained its somewhat hypocritical stance in suspending me - again for the alleged breach of the councillor code of conduct, which as I say is subject to appeal, whilst it has resolutely refused and continues to refuse either to sanction or suspend Cllr Caliskan, who was found guilty of numerous breaches of the same code of conduct on two separate occasions. This was for bullying of my colleague Cllr Yasemin Brett and also for directly interfering in the scrutiny process by attempting to instruct the then chair of the scrutiny committee Cllr Derek Levy.

I’m afraid, after six months, I am no longer prepared to accept this position. As far as I am concerned the Labour Party should hang its collective head in shame, not just for the way that it has treated me, given my many years of service, but also for its consistent failure to tackle the unholy mess within Enfield Labour Group and the unacceptable behaviour of Cllr Nesil Caliskan. Instead it has seemingly decided that political expediency is the path of least resistance.

It is for these reasons that I have resigned from the Labour Party.

However, I remain committed to the values and principles of the Labour Party and, in particular, the 2018 manifesto that I was elected on. I will not therefore be resigning as a councillor and will instead strive to hold the Labour administration to account. This I believe I can best do by joining my former colleagues Cllr Dinah Barry and Cllr Derek Levy as a member of Community First.