Deselected Tory council urges voters to support Labour candidates
1 min read
A deselected Conservative council in a key London election battleground has used his farewell speech to urge local people to back Labour.
Sury Khatri resigned his seat on Barnet council last month when he was not selected to fight the upcoming local elections in the north London area.
Speaking at his final council meeting on Thursday, he said he had been ousted by "a right wing and hard Brexit-based leadership coup", according to reports in the Guardian.
“This is your last meeting too, as you have stood down," he said.
"All I can say is that the people of Hale will get a significant upgrade in the quality of their representation if they vote for the Labour candidates. I hope the residents deliver the right result on 3 May – Conservatives losing control.”
The council is among several big Labour targets in the capital for the upcoming elections on May 3rd.
Barnet has been Tory-led since 2002 but has attracted criticism for mass contracting out of services, a move that has led it to be dubbed the 'EasyCouncil'.
Mr Khatri said he had fallen out with his party because he had criticised the "disastrous" contracts offered to services firm Capita.
“Four years on, issues still keep crawling out of the woodwork. This contract represents poor value for money, and the residents are being fleeced," he claimed.
PoliticsHome Newsletters
PoliticsHome provides the most comprehensive coverage of UK politics anywhere on the web, offering high quality original reporting and analysis: Subscribe
