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| Labour Councillor Lee Whitbread Photo: Southampton City Council |
Southampton Redbridge Labour Councillor Lee Whitbread has been suspended from the Labour Group of councillors, according to Jason Lewis, Local Democracy Reporter for the Daily Echo.
Co-Founder of Southampton Independents Andrew Pope says:
"The Council website says he is 'Independent'! They are just following their procedures, but Lee Whitbread is nothing of the sort.
We disown Lee Whitbread in no uncertain terms.
Lee Whitbread is not an independent, but a Labour councillor under investigation.
He is nothing to do with us, nor with any reputable independent elected representative. Lee Whitbread is a wrong'un.
Perhaps now Labour do not want him to be their candidate again, Whitbread could join the so-called "Independent Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition" who are also abusing the name of "independent" in the Shirley by-election. TUSC are also nothing to do with us or the Independent Network. They are Trotskyists and never achieve anything for Southampton.
I always had my suspicions about Lee Whitbread. He has sided with the wrong people, be they Labour councillors or others, including during the 2018 election when our candidate Denise Wyatt almost beat Labour.
We still have the evidence of what he did with those bad people and we considered challenging the result in the Election Court, but we did not have the money if we had lost. Labour clung on to power by one seat, employing desperate measures including siding with those who broke electoral law. We reported to the Police, who did not act to protect democracy or electoral law. They did not seem to know how to.
Thankfully in contrast to the Police, the Returning Officer trusted our evidence and patrolled polling stations when people threatened to intimidate voters outside them on polling day. Again, we have the evidence and the RO is respected.
I raised this in the Council Chamber after the 2018 local election, and likened the behaviour of some in Redbridge to the rotten borough of London Tower Hamlets, not Southampton.
Southampton could have been so different if they had not employed such desperate measures to keep power.
At the election count in 2016, Whitbread also made derogatory comments towards me and our genuine independent Redbridge candidate Denise Wyatt. He appeared to be affected by our presence at the count and Denise's excellent performance for a first time candidate, and we considered complaining to the Returning Officer. In hindsight, perhaps we should have done.
Having had to suffer him as a "colleague" when in Labour, despite my goodwill towards him at first, I have a wealth of bad experience of Whitbread.
But Councillor Simon Letts backed him despite the allegations I made about Whitbread when I was in the Labour Party. I gave the evidence to Southampton Labour Party officials, but they let Whitbread off.
Now is the time for Labour to ditch him, because the people of Redbridge deserve better than him. And they deserve better than the three Labour councillors - Whitbread, Goodfellow and McManus. They all need to go.
The people of Redbridge, Millbrook and Maybush deserve true Independent Network and Southampton Independents representation again, like they had with me from 2015-2019, and almost had with Denise Wyatt.
If you would like to stand against Whitbread in May, indeed against Labour in Redbridge in May if Whitbread is actually not to be their candidate, get in touch. It's time we brought Redbridge back to democracy, and indeed the whole of Southampton by electing talented independents onto the Council."
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| Andrew Pope |