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“I Can No Longer Stay Silent.” Romsey Councillor Resigns from Labour Over Gaza Genocide.”
Mairead and Dave (Mairead was the first City Councillor to resign over Gaza).
Cambridge City Councillor Dave Baigent has announced that he is resigning from the Labour Party and will continue to represent Romsey as an Independent Councillor. His decision comes after 62 years of committed Labour activism, spanning his entire adult life.
Cllr Baigent stated:
“This has been one of the most painful decisions of my political life. I have dedicated over six decades to the Labour movement through its highs and lows because I believed it stood for justice, compassion and equality.
I had hoped, with the return of a Labour government, that we would finally see bold, principled leadership that puts the needs of the people first. But instead, I’ve watched with dismay as the party has turned its back on the most vulnerable in our society.
From the failure to commit to a meaningful reform of the NHS, to the refusal to overturn the cruel two-child benefit cap, and the half-hearted stance on reversing cuts to disability payments time and again, this government has chosen political calculation over doing the right thing.”
He added:
“But it is the horror unfolding in Gaza that has left me with no choice but to resign.
What can I do, watching innocent, starving people being slaughtered in their thousands, other than take a stand?
The Labour leadership’s complicity in what is being recognised by many international experts as a genocide is indefensible. The silence and justifications, whilst continuing to trade and sell weapons parts to Israel. It shames us all.
I cannot, in good conscience, remain a member of a party that has abandoned its moral compass so completely and has also destroyed the influence of members by its authoritarian stifling of serious, democratic debate.”
Cllr Baigent is the second councillor in Romsey to resign from the Labour Party over Gaza. In 2023, Councillor Mairead Healy stepped down after Sir Keir Starmer endorsed the indiscriminate cutting of water and power to the entire population in Gaza, a comment which sparked widespread condemnation.
Cllr Baigent continues. “Romsey has a proud history of standing up for social justice and international solidarity and I no longer believe I can represent my constituents in good faith as a Labour member. That’s why I will continue to serve the people of Romsey as an independent councillor, free to listen to their views and speak them without constraint on the issues that matter, the issues that matter, from local housing and transport to global human rights and the climate emergency.”
For further information, please contact: Dave 07802 495329.
mailto:dave4romsey@outlook.com
