Abandoned by Labour

27 Sep 2023

This by-election has been caused by our Labour councillor outrageously abandoning Higham Hill to further his political career in the Mid-Bedfordshire parliamentary by-election.

Alistair Strathern was appointed as Labour’s Mid-Bedfordshire candidate on 16 June but only resigned as a councillor in September, later confirming on Twitter that he had been living in Shefford “for many months now”. It’s unclear when he abandoned Higham Hill, but in his own words it must have happened long before he resigned. It has been confirmed that in those 12 1/2 weeks, Strathern took over £9,000 of your council tax money.

Lib Dem candidate Alex Lewis, a resident of Higham Hill, said, “How on earth could Cllr Strathern fulfill his duties as a councillor while living in Bedfordshire full-time? Why was he kept in the cabinet while he campaigned to become an MP elsewhere? Instead of hedging his bets, he should have resigned when he moved and given locals the chance to elect someone who wants to represent them.”

“The Labour council leader has questions to answer around appointing Cllr Strathern to the cabinet in the reshuffle on 21 June. How could she not have known that he was planning to move out of Waltham Forest?” continued Alex Lewis.

Adding insult to injury, Labour have chosen a candidate from Leyton to fill the vacancy. It begs the question: Will they be around enough to understand the problems that local residents face or will Labour continue to neglect and abandon Higham Hill?


Sign up for email updates...

You can opt-out at any time
The Liberal Democrats may use the information you provide, including your political opinions, to further our objectives and share it with our elected representatives. Any data we gather will be used in accordance with our privacy policy: libdems.org.uk/privacy. You can exercise your rights and withdraw your consent to future communications by contacting us: data.protection@libdems.org.uk or: DPO, Lib Dems, 1 Vincent Square, SW1P 2PN.

This website uses cookies

Like most websites, this site uses cookies. Some are required to make it work, while others are used for statistical or marketing purposes. If you choose not to allow cookies some features may not be available, such as content from other websites. Please read our Cookie Policy for more information.

Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the website to function properly.
Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us to understand how our visitors use our website.
Marketing cookies are used by third parties or publishers to display personalized advertisements. They do this by tracking visitors across websites.