Coventry councillor resigns from Labour to back Sultana party as Warwick Labour considers rebrand

A Coventry city councillor and former Warwick Labour chair has resigned from the Labour Party and backed local MP Zarah Sultana’s breakaway movement.

Cllr Grace Lewis, 21, was elected last year to Coventry’s Westwood ward in the May local elections. Then a Warwick student, she defeated incumbent Conservative councillor Asha Masih by 521 votes, becoming a member of the Coventry Labour Group on the City Council.

Now, Lewis has broken away from the party, and will sit as an independent. She has committed her support to a new party being set up by Coventry MP Zarah Sultana, who resigned from Labour last month, alongside former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

This is not the change people voted for, not the change I joined the Labour party for when I was 16, and certainly not the change which people deserve

Cllr Grace Lewis

In a statement, Lewis attacked decisions taken by Coventry City Council, saying it had “failed to stand up for working people”.

She singled out cuts to services in Coventry, including cuts to libraries, as well as decisions taken by the Labour government nationally which she likened to austerity.

She said: “This is not the change people voted for, not the change I joined the Labour Party for when I was 16, and certainly not the change which people deserve.”

Instead, Lewis backed Sultana’s new party, continuing: “When Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn announced its inception, I felt a sense of genuine political hope for the first time in a long time.

“Change doesn’t come from Westminster – it’s built from the ground up.” She concluded: “From picket lines to the council chamber, I’ll keep fighting to put power and wealth back into the hands of the many, not the few.”

I’m proud to welcome her with open arms to the new political party we are building

Zarah Sultana, MP, Coventry South

Zarah Sultana welcomed Ms Lewis’s decision, praising the councillor as “a formidable presence in local government”. She said: “I’m proud to welcome her with open arms to the new political party we are building.

“Across the country, millions of people feel like they don’t have a political home. The Labour Party is dead and I would urge councillors and local leaders to ask themselves whether they’re really delivering the change that Keir Starmer promised.

“I look forward to working alongside Grace as we fight for a better future for Coventry and for the country.”

The Coventry Labour Group was contacted for comment.

Cllr Lewis’s decision prompted a ripple in the society at Warwick she chaired two years ago, whose members played a large role in electing her last year. In a statement, Warwick Labour welcomed her decision to resign from the Labour Party, which the society is not formally affiliated with.

Warwick Labour will rebrand as ‘Warwick Labour Movement’ until an upcoming exec meeting

Ed Swann, the society Chair, told The Boar that they recognised it “must have not been an easy decision” but that they were “delighted” to support the move.

Swann himself announced his own resignation from the party, describing it as having been “a constant battle to justify to my members and myself my involvement” amid what he characterised as “complicity” in genocide in Gaza, “austerity-lite policies”, and the silencing of party democracy.

In the face of Sultana’s new party, and seemingly coinciding with Cllr Lewis’s resignation, the Warwick Labour Chair announced that his society would “rebrand” as “a society for all socialists, regardless of political party stances”.

Warwick Labour will rebrand as “Warwick Labour Movement” until an upcoming exec meeting where the decision can be discussed.

Swann confirmed that the new Warwick Labour Movement would be campaigning for both Cllr Lewis and Ms Sultana, “as well as other political candidates we deem to hold the same socialist principles as our own”.

It is now time to move forward and be a part of a new alternative, one that offers genuine change

Ed Swann, Chair, Warwick Labour Movement

He added: “When I joined the Labour Party over three years ago, it was never my intention to leave, in the same way that when I was elected as chair of the society I had no intention of rebranding.

“But after much time, effort and dedication to fighting within the Labour Party, it is now time to move forward and be a part of a new alternative, one that offers genuine change.”

The society’s move to potentially drop Labour branding had not been proposed prior to its announcement, according to exec members, some of whom were taken by surprise.

Josh Balabanoff, the society’s External Campaigns Officer – a role involving liaising with national Labour groups – described the move only as “Disappointing” when approached by The Boar.

Labour Students members at Warwick deserve better than this

Ruby Herbert, Chair, Labour Students

The national Labour Students body – which has long been at odds with Warwick’s Labour Society – rebuked the move. Ruby Herbert, Chair of Labour Students, told The Boar: “Labour Students members at Warwick deserve better than this.”

She continued: “We look forward to establishing and working with a new Labour Society, ready to fight against Reform’s divisive politics on campus and in our communities.

“The Labour Party is the only party that can recover our country from the Tories’ damage and is getting on with the job. It is only because of this Labour government that students have fairer wages and better rights at work, and better protections from their landlords with landmark renters’ rights legislation.

“I encourage anyone who wants to be part of changing our country and taking the fight to Reform to play a serious role in progressive politics and join Labour Students.”

Others were more rancorous. One member, on the exec until last year, described Sultana’s new party disparagingly as ‘Jezbollah’. They noted: “Changing from a Labour society to a Labour Movement achieves what few Labour anoraks could imagine – a totally self-absolving renaming. Awe-inspiring.”

Cllr Lewis will deliver a speech at Coventry Cathedral at 1:15pm tomorrow (Saturday 2 August).