Prime Minister welcomes Brighton Labour councillor to Conservatives after defection

Cllr Mary Mears, chair of Brighton Kemptown Conservatives, with Cllr Anne Meadows, who has defected to the Tories from Labour (Credit: Kemptown Conservatives)

Conservative MP for Lewes Maria Caulfield raised the Brighton councillor's defection in the House of Commons this afternoon.

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Labour 'extremely disappointed' after Brighton councillor defects to Tories?She said: "The reason Councillor Meadows has left the Labour Party is because of the rise of anti-Semitism and bullying that she and her colleagues have experienced under Momentum activists. So much so that only seven of the 23 councillors there will be restanding in May. Does the Prime Minister agree that now anti-Semitism is rife throughout the whole of the Labour Party?

Prime Minister Theresa May said Cllr Meadows' decision to leave Labour was due to the 'bullying and anti-Semitism she has received from Momentum and the hard left'.

She added: "That's the harsh reality that decent moderate Labour councillors are having to face every day due to Jeremy Corbyn's failure to stand up to bullying and racism in his party.

"We welcome her with open arms into the Conservative Party and I'm sure she will be an excellent Conservative councillor."

In a tweet this morning, Conservative MP Brandon Lewis said that Cllr Meadows 'has been a dedicated councillor in Brighton & Hove since 1994' but he claimed she has been 'driven out' by alleged antisemitism.

She was not reselected to stand for Labour in her Moulsecoomb and Bevendean seat in the forthcoming council elections in May, but will now stand instead for the Conservatives.

Cllr Meadows said: “I am delighted that I have been so warmly accepted into the Conservative family, having spent most of my life as a Labour Member and Councillor.

"Leaving the Labour Party was not an easy decision for me, but today’s Labour party is not one I recognise, nor the one I joined many years ago.

"I want to continue to represent residents in Moulsecoomb and Bevendean in the most effective way possible, and I believe to achieve this it has to be as a Conservative Councillor.”