The Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown Lloyd Russell-Moyle has been suspended by his party nd prevented from standing in the general election.
Mr Russell-Moyle posted a personal statement on Twitter a short while ago saying: “I’ve been working day and night since the election was called for success mot only in Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven but across Sussex.
“Yesterday, out of the blue, I received an ‘administrative suspension letter’.
“Someone (who remains anonymous to me) has made what I believe to be a vexatious and politically motivated complaint about my behaviour eight years ago.
“This is a false allegation that I dispute totally and I believe it was designed to disrupt this election.
“There isn’t enough time to defend myself as these processes within the party take too long so the party has told me that I will not be eligible to be a candidate at the next election.
“I’m gutted. I’ve spent the last decade of my life building one of the best campaigning CLPs (constituency Labour parties) in the country.
“I’ve been so inspired by everyone pulling together in the last week and excited for the campaign to come.
“We have an amazing local party and I am sorry for all of you most of all.
“I aim to co-operate with the investigations process to clear my name but will now take this opportunity to contribute to public life in different ways under what I hope is a Labour government.
“I wish Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and the Labour team the best of luck and I hope to be celebrating Labour wins across Sussex and beyond on election night.”
Former Green councillor Geoffrey Bowden said: “This is outrageous! Although a member of a different party, I live in his constituency and know him to be a thoroughly hardworking MP.
“Coming on the heels of Labour’s disgraceful treatment of Diane Abbott, it looks as if anyone who may have supported Corbyn is being frozen out.”
Mr Russell-Moyle, a former member of Brighton and Hove City Council, won the seat from the Conservatives at the 2017 general election with a majority of almost 10,000.
At the 2019 election he held the seat with a majority of just over 8,000.
Lloyd is my MP. He has worked tirelessly for us. I was going to vote Labour just to get him re elected but now? Anyone but Labour!
Labour is an undemocratic cesspit
Tell me about it, when momentum came along and tried to de select anyone who wasn’t hard left, that was the end of the democratic party.
Voting out people you don’t agree with is a key part of democracy
Tim, when it comes to voting, democracy has micro and macro implications.
I think you are mixing up the times when a few radicals get their mates to join a community, or a local political party, so they can get the vote to go the way they want in a small committee room – and then there are those proper national election opportunities, when all of us get to vote for who we want to represent us in our geographical area.
It was not that long ago that the Greens played this game with the Old Shoreham Road cycle lane. They claimed their petition showed how many people wanted the (empty) cycle lane to stay, even though it was causing a daily log jam of traffic in the area, and most local residents didn’t want it. But the pro-cycling petition was full of people invited to add their name, using a national register of cycling fans from groups like Sustrans and regional groups like Bricycles. So the names on this fake petition were mostly from people who lived outside the area. Luckily, the fight for practical policies, over ideological ones, in this case won.
And so it is with Momentum, within the Labour party. Common sense has eventually won.
The other point being that dirty tactics in the forthcoming election will be a lot like this, claiming support for dodgy policies where it doesn’t actually exist. (Like the idea, plucked from the 1950s, for a return to ‘National Service’ for young people. Who actually wants that?… )
The July election will in truth, be decided on national issues. My thinking is that most people will vote for a change, nationally. All this personality stuff is an irrelevant distraction – from the need for a decent government which delivers public services and which stimulates the economy for the benefit of all.
That’s right – but the key word you use is ‘voting out’ – there was no vote, at least by local party members whose decision it was. It was a decision by a Starmer clique to replace Lloyd-Moyle by a lobbyist for gambling and the fossil fuel industry.
This is wholly undemocratic and I for one will, for the first time ever, not be voting Labour
Please provide evidence to back that comment. Momentum had no power to block anyone, as prospective candidates are selected by the clps and can only be blocked by the leadership of the party. To date, there is no evidence ‘hard left’ anyone blocked a candidate from standing. Despite media claims to the contrary. By contrast, both Kinnock and Blair blocked left wing candidates selected by cops, including one in my own constituency. These actions, again in direct contrast to the spurious claims of the Corbyn era, are well documented. I would suggest less reading what you want to believe and more fact gathering before making statements like that.
Just like Trump’s mob that stormed the Capital, LRH was very quick to become a yob under Corbyn. The damage caused by Corbyn is still having consequences, though I do believe LRM has changed a great deal for the better since then.
Agreed, I don’t support Labour at all but was begrudgingly going to vote them purely because Lloyd is my MP and he actually works like an MP should.
I don’t know anyone who can’t at least appreciate how good an MP he was even if they didn’t agree with him politically. Always responding to letters and emails, always supporting our constituency, he personally signposted and helped out people in my family. He genuinely cared about us here. There are very very very few politicians I trust, Lloyd was probably one of them.
Definitely not voting labour now, well done whichever idiot in the party thought this was a good idea. I wouldn’t be surprised if this dramatically splits the vote, a lot of people in this area don’t like labour but vouched for Lloyd.
I’ve been waiting 4 years for him to reply to my email about GP waiting times. I’ve no idea what he actually does though clearly others like him.p
Hmm yes it’s almost as if discounting someone’s entire career because they missed a single email you sent them four years ago is a silly thing to do.
Sometimes you gotta chase emails! Although, GP waiting times has been something I’ve spoken to him about before, specifically around community-based resources to reduce pressure on them. Pharmacy First being an example.
I look forward to LRM exacting his revenge. Popcorn time.
Should be interesting for the next election, at the very least.
Exactly. My MP. too. I am non political but vote for whoever is doing the best job for us locally and nationally at the time of elections (having been known to vote for 3 separate local councillors and a different party for general election in one year).
Lloyd has been brilliant in visiting local communities regularly and taking forward issues and does not forget to visit the outer urban fringe areas regularly to see how we are getting on.
By withdrawing Lloyd due to an 8 year old anonymous complaint and not letting the voting public know what this complaint is, nor from where the complaint came from, nor indeed Lloyd himself, the Labour Party are treating the constituents as fools. It will come back to bite them.
There will be a lot of protest votes now and voting for other parties instead if he is not standing, including mine!
LRM always spent time responding to issue that were important to me. To hear he has been treated so disgustingly by his own party is sickening. I’m not voting for whoever they choose to replace him.
Labour have not been Labour since Tony Blair came to power. In fact they get worse by the day.
Labour have been terrible since tony Blair left. Hence why they haven’t been in government.
I’d rather have a center ground labour party in power than the Eton toffs who have lined their pockets with our money the past 13 years, wrecked the economy, made Brexit happen and made everyone’s mortgages skyrocket.
Obviously whoever put in this complaint has an axe to grind which is petty to do it now but unfortunately that’s the process, if they kept him and it turned out he did something wrong people would be up in arms. Sad but that’s life I guess.
And the Tories haven’t been the same since the days of John Major.
Parties change.
Yes – Simon Kirby always got back to you – he opposed the marina over development, and fought tooth and nail to get the funding for the new Sussex county hospital. Proper “local MP”
The timing is very suspicious.
Revenge is a dish best eaten cold and this is revenge for his unswerving support for Corbyn. Wonder who they will parachute in? Thecee we hole election is turning into a farce 🤣
Served. The phrase is served. Although I do share your question about who will be running in place? I imagine they are going a bit crazy at HQ at the moment.
Bring back DR Des
Politics can be so ugly at times ! Imagine one minute you have a job and you do the job well and next minute it’s ‘goodbye’ and for why ??
Politics is so ugly right now, but the timing of this is deeply suspicious.
Let’s hope that Russell-Moyle manages to clear his name against unfounded allegations. The fact that he has no chance of doing that before the forthcoming election – plus it’s his job – is despicable.
It also feels like the press is suddenly full of allegations and stories against Labour MPs, at a time when the proven misdemeanours of many sitting Torys have been far worse.
The way the gutter press recently went for Angela Rayner is just one example –and, despite her being cleared of any wrongdoing, the damage has already been done.
As a gay man, and as MP for a Brighton constituency, Russell-Moyle is another obvious tabloid target.
The truth will out over time, but in the meantime this is perfect gutter press fodder which works for the Torys, as distraction tactics – distracting from their self-serving policy decisions which in the last decade have run the UK economy into the ground.
On a (hopefully) separate note, why has this site made it so difficult to post comments after articles?
The site adverts are already making everything impossible to read.
Regarding adverts, I recommend an adblocker or a browser like Brave that has it built in.
There seems to be all the mud slinging in both directions at the moment. The glorious drama of election season. Having said that, I do hope if these are unfounded allegations, LRM is able to clear his name. I quite agree with you, the timing seems very convenient.
I suspect Starmer clearing out bits of momentum before they cost him an election. Notwithstanding most people who have dealt with Lloyd speak warmly of him.
It’s not clear – in fact it’s unlikely – that Starmer has anything to do with this.
How do you know these allegations are unfounded?
Lloyd’s continuing party loyalty is poignant. Labour Party violence to its own needs to be seen for what it is. A sign lit up in flashing red lights signaling how Starmer’s Labour intend to govern.
Already the Labour council have killed off pesky democratic input from all cllrs in Brighton & Hove with introduction of its Cabinet of beginner Labour cllrs replacing the all-party Committee system. Power grab! Over and above absolute majority voting power!
Strangulation of democracy by degrees is achieved pretty easily when the public is not watching properly.
I remember Lloyd as a Planning Cttee cllr of incisive integrity and obvious ability.
Stand as an Independent, Lloyd! And good luck to you.
Let’s see what happens with the complaint. There have been rumours around LRM for years which I will not repeat here. Is it no smoke without fire or the case of a Starmer Purge? Time will tell.
What are the odds of Bella Sankey being imposed as the candidate. It all looked rather cosy with Keir the other day when he was in Sussex, and Lloyd was noticeably absent then in the pics.
Without knowing whet the allegation is, it’s difficult to be clear on things, but the timing of it is dreadful, and it looks questionable, particular happening on the same day as the Diane Abbott debacle and Labour’s appalling handle of that situation and the same day as Faiza Shaheen was de-selected. She was picked up by Labour for liking a friend’s tweet about the Green Party years and years ago before she was even a Lab Party member – yet they let Natalie Elphicke a former Tory MP into their party with open arms.
Who knows if we’ll ever know what’s really going on within the Lab Party at the moment, but it feels a bit uncomfortable, and even a bit cruel.
Amen to all that. I think what we are seeing is part of the 80 year-plus dance of death between left and right in the Labour Party.
The Bennites undoubtedly caused a lot of damage in the 80s but I don’t think they stooped to using disciplinary allegations for political reasons. I suspect a few more of these cases will follow in a co-ordinated attack.
The allegation is 8 years old. The timing was clearly aimed at removing him. I’ve had more than my fair share of disagreements with Lloyd but if this had been a right-wing Labour MP he would have been allowed to stand and the investigation would have proceeded regardless.
How is it right that an allegation of such vintage is allowed to destroy someone’s career? What if it proves to be unfounded? Then the damage will have been done regardless.
If this is Starmer’s idea of due process then I for one am not voting for his replacement, one Chris Ward, a lobbyist for the gambling industry and fossil fuels. Anyone but Labour
In these circumstances suspension is a verdict and without the presumption of innocence
I’m two minds about that. I agree that the optics of the suspension assume guilt, but it is also right to follow due process. It’s just the timing for me, it is way too convenient. That evidences a mindset less about the complaint, whatever that may be, and more about trying to hurt Lloyd. It is no secret that Lloyd has several people who dislike him and would benefit from him being sidelined in this way.
If the complainant is reading these comments, they better be very sure that their complaint has merit, because I don’t personally see this not being answered legally should it be found to be tortious interference.
Whatever the complaint turns out to be, if the complainant has sat on it for eight years, doesn’t that make them just as complicit in the matter as the individual they are complaining about?
Why wait eight years to make this complaint, especially if it’s serious?
It’s a good question. One could speculate the complaint was made now to cause maximum damage or disruption politically. Although, if it is found to be vexatious, I am wondering if there is scope for a countersuit?
Good….
I am really sorry for you, it’s just not fair !
It’s devastating news. Don’t give up, you don’t deserve to be treated like this.
Strange how this complaint is made just as the General Election was called. Why wasn’t it made before when he was carrying out his constituency duties?
I smell a big fat rat here, very suspicious timing.
The timing is dodgy, but given his behaviour is a known problem, including his aggressive and misogynistic behaviour towards women in the House of Commons- this should have been dealt with by the Labour party a long time ago.
I will not be voting Labour. What is more I will be resigning my membership. I do not know who has taken over the Labour Party but it isn’t The party I joined in 1965. I cannot support or give any help to a party which supports the killing in Gaza,does nothing to help our NHS.and operates an antidemocratic stance with it’s own membership. BarryBarry Barry