Yet another Labour leader suspended!

I am seeing a number of posts, even on the BBC, speculating and commenting on why a certain Labour council Leader (Joe Baker) was suspended from the party.

Councillor Joe Baker, who had led the council for 11 months, stepped down on Friday, citing personal reasons.

A West Midlands Labour party spokesperson confirmed he had been suspended, but would not comment further on the matter. Baker is now sitting as an independent councillor.

As you can appreciate, I have no comments at this time, Baker said, after being contacted by the BBC about his suspension.

In an email to all councillors on Friday, the council confirmed Baker had resigned his position "due to personal circumstances". But it referred all queries to Redditch Labour Party.

Naturally, especially with it being Labour(!), you nod and jump to the ‘obvious’ conclusion… ‘cos the party seems to be full of ’em. A veritable petri dish.

Consider this tweet by a Joe Rich, London-based barrister, Conservative councillor and parliamentary candidate.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for throwing mud at the politicians once they are pilloried, especially Labour ones, but, unless we’re missing something, it appears to me that this Tory barrister is too quick to imply wrong-doing, too quick to want push votes ‘the right way’ as we run up to the May elections.

As a barrister he should know better. It seems to me, however carefully, that he and especially his followers are implying Councillor Joe was suspended for a scandal, perhaps even inappropriate behaviour with minors. For a guy that claims to hate injustice and dishonesty, maybe he shouldn’t be at the front of the crowd, throwing dirt and rocks, hmm.

It may be that the guy is dirty in some way, but to automatically assume he is is just wrong.

However, even an quick search offer another more likely reason – that Counsellor Baker had previously and presumably again called out Labour for cancelling the local elections in his area.

Seems to me Aunty Beeb, as with the link above, is also playing dirty and being Labour’s bitch here, but I’m cynical like that.

However, this is what I see – that Counsellor Baker is one of the good guys and had the backbone to stand up for his constituents – and Labour threw him under the bus for it!

THE leader of Redditch Borough Council has slammed a proposal to postpone this year’s county council elections.

Councillor Joe Baker has said the leader of Worcestershire County Council “should not have taken it upon himself to make a unilateral decision which effectively undermines the Districts of Worcestershire.”

County council leader Simon Geraghty previously wrote to local government minister Jim McMahon requesting the postponement of the elections.

He wants to fast-track plans for a Worcestershire unitary authority in line with Labour’s devolution policies.

Meanwhile, councillor Joe Baker has written to the minister of state, housing and communities and local government, Jim McMahon.

Councillor Baker said: “Redditch residents have the democratic right to vote for those who they want to lead them through the devolution process and decisions taken around this should have their best interests in mind.

“Therefore I have written to the Minister to ask him not to postpone the County Council’s elections in May.

Labour: HOW DARE HE DISSENT! HOW DARE HE RISK OUR SEATS!

The left, a place were any view is acceptable, no matter how unpalatable – as long as it’s THEIR view.

As an addenda, I do note that Councillor Baker appears to have deleted his Twitter/X account, but with people searching for tweets to twist, I suppose you can’t blame him, eh!