Labour councillor Birgit Miller has resigned from the party to sit as an Independent member of Brighton and Hove City Council.
She won her seat – one of three in Goldsmid ward in Hove – at the local elections in 2023 and served as a member of the council’s cabinet until May.
She was replaced as the cabinet member for culture, heritage and tourism by Councillor David McGregor, instead becoming the deputy chair of the council’s People Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
Councillor Miller said: “I’m very sad to have to announce that, with immediate effect, I will be representing the residents of Goldsmid Ward as an independent councillor.
“I no longer have faith in the leadership of the current Labour administration and, under these circumstances, cannot sit as a member of this administration.
“I am also resigning my membership of the Labour Party with immediate effect.
“I continue to believe in the values of the Co-operative and Labour parties and remain fully committed to supporting both national parties and Andy Burnham as Prime Minister.”
Councillor Miller is the second Labour councillor in her ward to have resigned from the Labour group to sit as an Independent.
The former mayor of Brighton and Hove, Jackie O’Quinn, quit the party in February after having been a member for almost 50 years.
She sat as an Independent after resigning the Labour whip but later, at the start of May, she resigned from the council.
In June, Green candidate Nadia Barton Ahmad won the seat in the by-election that followed former Councillor O’Quinn’s departure.
The by-election was the seventh to have taken place since the local elections in May 2023, with another scheduled for September after Labour councillor Milla Gauge stepped down.
All eight by-elections followed the resignation of a councillor who had been elected as a Labour candidate.
The Greens have won three of the four most recent by-elections. Labour held the others, with one still to take place.
And, in addition to by-election losses, three Labour councillors, other than Birgit Miller, have become Independents since the local elections – Jackie O’Quinn, Ty Galvin and Bruno De Oliveira.
Councillor De Oliveira has since joined the Greens while Councillor Galvin was placed under investigation by Labour after a complaint although no details have been made public. He called it “vexatious”.
After the local elections in 2023, Labour held 38 of the 54 seats on the council – with 28 required for a majority – while the Greens held seven.
Now, Labour has 31 seats and the Greens have 11.
Councillor Miller is understood to have been trying to help a resident in her ward with a housing matter over the past few months.
She lost her seat in the cabinet within weeks of taking up the case although it is unclear whether the two events are connected.
At least some in the Labour Party seems to have integrity and thinks of the residents and not their own careers well dun and good luck.
I suspect the leader of the council places a higher level of importance upon councillors towing the national party line than representing the needs and wishes of the electorate. If this is the case, the exodus is unsurprising.
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