New Party, Familiar Faces
JAMES PRENTICE
Maya Evans is back in town telling several people she has been hired by Jeremy Corbyn as campaign organiser for his new political party.
Maya Evans
The former Hastings Borough Councillor boldly claimed that the new ‘Your Party’ venture already has over 600,000 members and “will probably be called The Left Party.”
She told a HIP volunteer that it was “all go at the campaign headquarters in Islington” and “she was having a great time talking to many big names”. She also claimed that “deals would be done with the Green Party in the local elections”, with the aim to “wipe Labour off the map”.
As no party has yet been formed, her claims are impossible to verify. However, if this did happen, it could have big implications for Hastings’ politics.
The first impact would be electoral. If a new Left Party were to do deals with the Greens, it could make it harder for Labour to win specific council seats. It could also split the progressive vote to let Reform win the parliamentary seat with a smaller vote share than would have otherwise been the case.
Additionally, the six remaining Hastings BC councillors who left Labour to form the Hastings Independent Group (HIG) in 2023 have shown interest in joining the new party, which could lead to a rebranding of the grouping.
In last May’s local council elections, the HIGs were unable to secure a single seat and gained less than 10% of the vote, with Maya losing her Hollington ward to Labour. This was, in part, due to a damning Local Government Association report highlighting the poor handling of council finances whilst leading HIG figures (Maya Evans, Andy Batsford and Paul Barnett) were in control of the main portfolios. Specifically, it highlighted how the “compassionate policies of political leaders were not balanced with financial reality, leading to significant overspends”. The report highlighted how significant savings would need to be made to avoid a section 114 notice, meaning Hastings’ taxpayers would have had fewer services for years to come to pay for repeated oversights.
With the HIG facing poor electoral prospects in 2027, they will, no doubt, hope that standing under a new banner will allow them to leave the past behind and become more electable.
We hope you have enjoyed reading this article. The future of our volunteer led, non-profit publication would be far more secure with the aid of a small donation. You can also support local journalism by becoming a friend of HIP. It only takes a minute and we would be very grateful.
It is perfectly understandable why the author of this article, James Prentice, who is an officer of the local labour party, is worried about the danger of a new left party attracting votes away from his party. Labour continue to support a genocide in Gaza, are cutting support for the elderly and disabled, are supporting developers to build unaffordable luxury housing for profit on our green spaces, and are undermining democracy by abolishing our local council – so not many people are convinced anymore that voting labour is still a ‘progressive’ vote. The only people to blame for the rise of Reform are our present government, and the only way to stop Reform winning the next election is to make sure there is a genuine left alternative to vote for that will actually represent the majority, not the rich.
Few people are likely to be fooled either, by the authors suggestion that the main problem in local government is mismanagement, rather than the huge financial burden of providing temporary housing for hundreds of homeless families because of years of underfunding of social housing by national government, and their refusal to regulate private landlords or cap rents or restrict holiday lets. Local labour party politicians should take responsibility for the actions of their party continuing these policies now they are in government, rather than play this silly game of spin and smear.
We need a new type of politics and that is what nearly 800,000 people have now signed up to create with Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. This is not just a ‘bold claim’ by Maya Evans it is public information that is easy for anyone to verify. Maya is currently an employee of Jeremy Corbyn in his constituency office in Islington and it’s hard to understand why the author takes issue with the fact that she is enjoying her job? I imagine it must be very rewarding to work for an MP who has integrity and has earned the respect and admiration of his constituents and millions more for his principled socialist values. Lets hope we can elect an MP like that for Hastings.
Good response, let’s not get scared away from a fresh start by a two party system that provides nothing that anybody wants but is desperate to hold onto a gravy train speeding away from their position.
This must be one of the most misleading articles I’ve ever read!
James Prentice really needs ti check his facts before going to print.