People have spoken of their “exasperation” over a branch of Sefton Labour remaining suspended for over a year amid “unresolved” allegations of bullying.
The situation has left people connected to the branch, who spoke to the ECHO on condition of anonymity, “baffled” and “exhausted.”
In November last year Ford ward branch members and officials were contacted by a North West regional Labour officer to inform them the branch had been suspended, effective immediately, following allegations of “bullying and intimidation.”
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Former and current members, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of being sanctioned by the party, said repeated requests for clarity regarding the allegations made or the progress of any investigation has been met with “either no response or one that was never worth making” with the branch remaining closed one year later with no end in sight.
One person connected to the Sefton branch described the situation as “very puzzling” with another calling it “nothing short of a dereliction of democracy” claiming the situation has meant people are unable to select candidates for their ward or participate in their local Labour party.
The person, who we have named Aaron, said emails are still sent to ask for help with leafleting or campaigning, but apart from that claimed it felt like branch members have been “left behind, put in a drawer to gather dust in the hope that we all just leave.”
Having been a member of the Labour party over several decades, Aaron said he had “never seen anything like it” and couldn’t understand how the situation was allowed to continue.
Aaron told the ECHO: “As a long standing member of that ward I’ve never seen anything of intimidation or harassment from ward members of councillors or any individual in the ward.
“When I received a letter from regional office I was astonished and appalled to be effectively accused as the letter stated all 95 members cannot meet in the branch.
“To me it accuses every individual of that ward so I feel it’s an attack on my character that I can’t even defend because I haven’t, and other people I’ve spoken to, have not been told any specific thing any of these allegations are supposed to be about.
“Yet here we are a year later and the branch is still closed. Attempts to find out what is going on gets nowhere. The word is exasperation, we have a democratic right to see any report there is about this, what any of the accusations are.
“When you as a ward have been accused of intimidation and harassment – that’s 95 members, some of them have been in that ward for 40-50 years, but nobody will say what, there’s no sense to it.”
Aaron said he believes the issues began when the re-selection of one of the sitting councillors was coming up. He said: “It was either the next day or nearly the next day. I think it was clear she was not going to be automatically reselected, the members wanted to look at other people in the ward.
“We never got that chance to select our councillor. We’ve missed all kinds of selections in the constituency party. I think they’re just hoping we’ll all give up.”
One former member, who was previously an officer of the branch said he is convinced there are moves to get rid of more left leaning members.
Ryan O’Connor was chair of the branch until he was expelled from the Labour party after the branch was suspended, accused of being a member of a banned group. He said he had simply like posts by the group “Socialist Appeal” and believes his expulsion was politically motivated.
He told the ECHO about the days leading up the suspension of the branch.
Ryan said: “The selection process was delayed, it wasn’t really stated at the time as to why, but once we had the notification, myself and the ward secretary discussed arrangements and sent out emails to the membership stating that we were going to have selection meetings.
“Within 12 hours, overnight, it was the next day the we received email notification the branch was being suspended.
“We were told there had been serious allegations, we were not allowed to meet, the selection meetings weren’t happening.
“As a result of that bureaucratic shut-down, the incumbent candidate at the time, Cllr Liz Dowd, was imposed on the ward with no selection.
“It was after this that three out of four members of the ward executive were suspended and expelled for charges not relating the original accusations of bullying and harassment.
“I feel 100% that we were targeted for being on the left. There was no animosity at meetings, our branch meetings were all on zoom for a long time, they were all friendly.
“The only time there was any hint of acrimony, but it wasn’t even that – was when we had a debate about condemning the leader Keir Starmer for writing in the S*n.
“There was a debate but that resolution passed, the branch agreed he was wrong to do that. I was proud that day of how the debate was carried out, there were differences of opinion, but everyone was respectful.
“It wasn’t much long later after that though we were shut down as a branch.”
Ryan is no longer a member of the Labour party and says the whole experience has left him “dismayed” with local politics, for others however, still members of the branch and the party, the hope continues that Ford ward may be reopened one day.
Aaron said; “If we can just get some answers, some movement with the investigation, some dialogue, that’s all we want.
“We want the branch reopened, we want to be able to participate in democratic meetings, take active roles in the party we pay our subs to every month, it’s not really too much to ask is it?”
North West Labour were contacted for comment on multiple occasions on the issues raised but have not responded to requests for comment.
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