Hastings Rebels Find a New Home
ANDY BATSFORD
Sometimes the world takes a while to catch up with you. Two years ago, eight of us – all Labour councillors in Hastings – did the unthinkable: we walked away from Cabinet posts, leadership of the Council was sacrificed and decades of party loyalty cast aside; not for ambition, but for principle.
We all had had enough. Enough of a party leadership that saw winning power as a race to the right. Enough of HQ strong-arming local voices purging dissenters,and treating lifelong members like troublesome relics. The Labour Party, we believed, had traded its soul for a red rosette and a seat at the grown-ups’ table.
And we ask, for what? To get over the electoral winning line against an opposition so chaotic it could barely tie its own shoelaces? And then reveal they had no vision, no moral spine, and no memory of the values Labour was built on. Compassion, equality, solidarity? Left behind somewhere between a focus group in Guildford and a Daily Mail op-ed.
Year one of this new Labour government has been a slow-motion pile-up. Politically timid, morally hollow, and forever dancing to the tune of Reform UK and the right-wing press, it’s managed to alienate the very people who once carried clipboards and knocked on doors for it in the rain.
So no, we were not shocked or surprised when hundreds of thousands responded to the call to register support for the Your Party movement grounded in social justice, peace, and unapologetic socialism. In the country and Hastings, the response has been electric.
The Hastings Independents Group haven’t just joined this new movement, we have attended meetings nationally to help shape it. Behind the scenes they’ve fought to ensure it listens to real communities, not London think tanks. This isn’t a vanity project or a power grab. We’re not asking to lead, they’re asking us to help build.
What we want is simple: a country where people are safe, secure, and heard. A party that doesn’t flinch when the tabloids growl. A home for those on the left who still believe politics can mean something better for us all.
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