This announcement regarding Cllr Matt Renyard, sitting Councillor for Coxford Ward, having served the Labour Party as:
- Campaigning Member for 15 yrs
- Chair of Southampton Test CLP for 4 yrs
- Southampton representative on the Hampshire Police and Crime Panel for 3 yrs
- Cabinet Member for Safer City for 2 yrs
Councillor Renyard will today be informing his Labour Colleagues and other elected members of Southampton City Council at today’s Full Council that he is resigning from the Labour Party, after being a Labour Councillor for the past six years, and now intends to serve with the Green Party.
Councillor Katherine Barbour welcomes Matt to the Green Party and says, “the Green Party is now becoming the only party that represents everyone in the city whether working or not – recent Labour policies will disadvantage huge swathes of the population and bring misery to families and people with ill health issues.”
He wants to reassure the residents of Coxford Ward that he will continue to strongly represent them in the same way he always has, through his regular Saturday morning surgeries at Lordshill Library, his Councillor email (councillor.m.renyard@southampton.gov.uk) and his strong presence on social media.
He indicates that it is becoming increasingly difficult to speak honestly within both the local and national Labour Party, highlighting that the Leader of the Southampton Labour Group, and therefore Southampton City Council, Cllr. Fielker, was not voted for by the elected members of the Labour Group as would normally be the case, and that controlling behaviour now seems to be the norm within the Party at every level.
Councillor Renyard says “Labour have broken my heart. They used to be the party that represented every day, ordinary people- fighting for the poor; the vulnerable; and both the working and middle classes. Following the first nine months of this newly elected Labour Government, it is clear that Labour has lost its way. It does not have a vision for fixing our broken economy with a new economic model that is fit for the 21st Century. The Green Party is putting together a clear vision for a future that works for the people, the planet, and future generations. Labour are simply carrying out the same old austerity.”