Ex-MP’s councillor husband quits
POLITICS: The husband of former Labour MP Angela Smith has quit the party after nearly a decade as a councillor, following a stand-off over his re-selection.
Steve Wilson’s announcement comes after the national party was plunged into a fresh antiSemitism crisis, over comments made by suspended Labour MP Chris Williamson.
THE HUSBAND of former Labour MP Angela Smith has quit the party after nearly a decade as a councillor, following a stand-off with local activists over his re-selection.
Steve Wilson’s announcement comes after the national party was plunged into a fresh antiSemitism crisis this week, over comments made by suspended Labour MP Chris Williamson at a Sheffield Momentum event.
Mr Wilson, who has been a Sheffield councillor since 2011 alongside his role as Ms Smith’s parliamentary assistant, left the party after a selection battle and cited the Momentum footage as one of the reasons for his departure.
He told The Yorkshire Post: “I’ve had it up to here and I can no longer stay. I have come to the same conclusion as my wife.
“Underlying this as well is that I’m an anti-racist. It’s one of my core beliefs – equality and social justice. And I’ve seen what is around this place and what’s happening in the Labour Party with anti-Semitism and that has been turning my stomach.
“Do I want to be associated with these people? I don’t, because they don’t represent my views any more.”
Meanwhile, Labour’s Deputy Leader Tom Watson is seeking a meeting with Jeremy Corbyn to discuss making tackling antiSemitism “the number one issue” for the party.
He warned that Labour was “perilously close” to losing more MPs over the issue after nine resigned last week.
Mr Watson’s intervention was prompted by footage, exclusively revealed by The Yorkshire Post earlier this week, of Mr Williamson saying the party has been “too apologetic” over anti-Semitism allegations.
The Derby North MP apologised for the speech, but was later suspended from Labour pending an investigation.
Yesterday, Mr Watson said the party “can’t apologise enough”, describing last week’s resignation of Liverpool Wavertree MP Luciana Berger as “the worst day of shame in the Labour Party’s 120year history – a pregnant young MP bullied out of her own party by racist thugs”.
Mr Wilson, whose wife Ms Smith recently quit the party alongside six of her colleagues, said local tensions had grown since the 2017 General Election.
“It got quite vicious and it’s got worse and worse since then,” he said. “Every time I’ve said anything I get email after email, there’s intimidation, there’s bullying.
“The atmosphere in the constituency has got horrible. It’s members of Momentum within the constituency Labour party.”
After initially being selected to defend his East Ecclesfield seat by the local party, senior figures stepped in to demand that the process was re-run following a complaint.
Mr Wilson made the decision to leave following a second selection meeting yesterday, where Labour members voted to open up the process to other candidates.
However, a local Labour source blamed the selection problems on Mr Wilson and Ms Smith.
They said: “This situation is entirely of Steve Wilson and Angela Smith’s making. They only have themselves to blame.
“Party rules were broken in a bid to engineer his automatic reselection and that’s not on. You do have to ask – how long would he have continued as a Labour councillor if he’d been re-elected?”
Sheffield Momentum cochairs Abdul Shaif Kasim and Jennifer Jones said: “Since Steve Wilson has resigned, the members are now left with two excellent candidates to choose from.”
The atmosphere in the constituency has got horrible. Sheffield councillor Steve Wilson.