The leader of Aberdeen City Council’s suspended Labour group has written to the chairman of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) appealing for his backing ahead of this week’s decision on their future.
Jenny Laing, the co-leader of Aberdeen City Council, formed a coalition with the Conservatives and a handful of independent councillors after last year’s local government elections, and the city’s Labour group was subsequently suspended from the party by former leader Kezia Dugdale.
The Scottish Executive Committee handed on the job of making a decision on the fate of the nine councillors to the party’s NEC last month – and a final ruling is expected to take place tomorrow.
In her letter to Andy Kerr, Mrs Laing outlined the reasons why Aberdeen Labour had joined forces with the local Tory group and spoke of her own family’s history with the party.
She said: “As you will be aware, Aberdeen Labour struck a power-sharing deal with councillors from across the political spectrum for the simple reason that it allowed us to continue delivering the biggest social programme of regeneration this city has ever seen.
“My late father, Jim Lamond, was the long-serving MP for Oldham East and previously held the post of Aberdeen’s Lord Provost.
“I was brought up in the bosom of the Labour movement and therefore know from personal experience just how deep feelings run when it comes to the Tories’ ‘crimes’ against the poorest in society in the 1980s and 1990s.
“Labour’s job today is to oppose austerity policies from wherever they come, be it from SNP or the Tories.
“Labour elected members taking a lead in local government, delivering Labour policies and protecting the rights of council workers – that surely is what all of us joined the Labour party to make possible.
“I know many other Labour leaders who would love to be able to do for their communities what we are doing for ours. Now is the time for the Labour party to get behind us and help us to deliver.”
Quoting Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign slogan, Mrs Laing added: “Given my background and unfaltering belief in social justice, I hope that common sense prevails and the NEC supports our position, so that we can deliver Labour policies for the many not the few in Aberdeen.”