Kirklees councillor says ‘people have woken up’ to what Labour really is

West Yorkshire councillor Jo Lawson left the Labour Party in early 2024, calling her Kirklees Labour Group a “toxic swamp” with almost no free speech or democracy. She had stood up to the leadership over its weak stance on the Gaza genocide, and suffered the consequences. Speaking to the Canary recently, she told us “Gaza was my red line”. And she thinks a year of Keir Starmer’s cronies in government has woken many other people up too.

“I cannot see why anybody would still stay”: Kirklees councillor

Explaining why she left Labour in 2024, Lawson said:

I couldn’t justify to myself anymore being a representative of a party that I wouldn’t have been a member of… but I also knew that a Starmer Labour government wasn’t going to give the people I represent, the most vulnerable people, the support and the help that they actually needed.

After Labour’s first year in government, meanwhile, she insisted:

You see the attacks on the elderly, the disabled, on children… I cannot see why anybody would still stay. I can’t.

As a councillor, she receives lots of calls and emails, and tries to reply even if there’s nothing she can do. But she revealed that:

in the last year, people have woken up to the fact that… they don’t see any real change. If anything, they’re seeing more ‘savings’… And people are now frustrated… They want the basic stuff. They want their bins sorting out, they want the fly tipping sorting out, and the pot holes. That’s the main things that people actually want, and that’s the impacts you see.

She has been vocal in her critiques of the council for its failures in these areas, and has supported local initiatives to take action. She is particularly critical of the way the council leader in Kirklees gets to choose the cabinet members, so “some of them might not be there because of their ability” but because of political favour with the leadership. Because of these political games, she suggested, people in the borough have “been neglected for, like, ten years”.

Mobilising for a new left party

Lawson stressed that:

Once you’re actually free of a whip or this need to show a united front, you can question a lot more. I feel, since I left the Labour Party, that I’ve become a better councillor because I can actually question.

She has been particularly active in campaigning for boycotts and divestment (at the council and West Yorkshire Pension Fund) from companies with links to Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and genocidal war crimes in Palestine.

Lawson has been an important voice in the People’s Alliance for Change and Equality (PACE), which has been connecting campaigners, trade unionists, and politicians across Kirklees in opposition to war, cuts, and racism. Jeremy Corbyn supported its official launch back in May, and PACE is backing the Your Party project to create a new mass party on the left, while preparing for the 2026 local election. Your Party’s Zarah Sultana will be in Huddersfield on 18 October to support PACE’s 2026 electoral campaign launch.

For Lawson, increasing democratic mobilisation locally will be key to the success of a new party on the left. There are people who still think “oh, politics doesn’t affect me”, she said, so the work going forwards is about “making a space where they feel welcome, they’re wanted, and they feel that they can achieve something”. She emphasised:

It’s about everybody having a voice.

She would also like to see policies similar to those Jeremy Corbyn galvanised millions of voters with in the 2017 election. And she insisted:

we’ve learned from the lessons of all the media smears and we should be able to deal with it more effectively

PACE has called for the new left party to launch as soon as possible so members can officially join and a real recruitment drive can take place. It also believes a huge national rally, union conferences, and a founding national conference need to occur shortly afterwards. Additionally, it wants an emphasis on political education, active participation in protests and other struggles, and strong preparation for upcoming local elections.

Featured image via the Canary