I am writing to seek your advice about the upcoming council elections. I am a proud socialist and one of the 251,417 people who voted you in as leader of the Labour Party last August. The problem now is my local Labour Party in Portsmouth seems to be in disarray and I don’t know whether voting for one of their candidates will in effect be endorsing your political vision or a more right-wing, Blairite one.
Sue Castillon, who was a Corbyn supporter, has resigned as chairperson of the local party. Leader of the local Labour Party, John Ferrett, called those who voted for you ‘morons’, while his brother, Ken Ferrett, former Labour councillor stepped down last September in protest at your election as Labour leader. Aidan Gray, another right-winger, announced in February that he would not be defending his seat on May 5th.
Unfortunately, the Portsmouth Labour Party website offers no information about the political loyalties of the new candidates fielded. For the sake of transparency, such loyalties should be revealed to the public otherwise myself and many other Corbyn supporters run the risk of electing a councillor who, despite standing on a Labour platform, will oppose your policies and work to undermine you, as so many within the party have done on the national level.
I believe you have done a good job so far, despite the inevitable attacks from the political establishment and corporate media. You seem to be getting more forceful in PMQs, which is a good thing. However, many of us are still waiting for the apology for the Iraq disaster you promised on behalf of the Labour Party. The date of the publication of the Chilcott Report, whenever that may be, seems too far away.
Yours sincerely,
A concerned resident
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