Wirral councillor Moira McLaughlin quits the Labour party

Cllr Moira McLaughlin, who has served as a councillor in Wirral for 23 years and been a member for 40, is the latest in a line of resignations in the borough.

Chair of the Wirral party, Cllr McLaughlin follows leader Cllr Phil Davies who will stand down in May, Cllr Mike Sullivan who has become an independent, and Birkenhead MP Frank Field who resigned the party whip, to make allegations against Labour's hard-left in recent times.

Cllr McLaughlin, who will now serve as an independent, said she now fears for the Labour group's future after all four constituency parties were recently "taken over" by the left.

She said: "The move [to the left] is to change the status of a Labour councillor from one of a person who is elected by their constituents to serve them with honest Labour values to one of a mere delegate, controlled by a hard-left clique of unelected Labour Party officials, driven by their rigid and unrealistic ideology in their distorted version of democracy – an ideology which is not shared by the communities we are elected to serve.

"Councillors who resist this are systematically targeted.

"Local Campaign Forum observers of the Wirral Labour group engage in bullying and the leader, myself as chair, the chief whip, cabinet leads and councillors have all been on the receiving end of this treatment.

"Long-serving, hard–working, moderate councillors are under threat of de-selection with the intention of replacing them with those deemed suitable by the hard-left."

She said local, regional and national party officials have been made aware of the situation, but have not made "any effective attempt to control it".

Cllr McLaughlin, 69, first elected in 1996, said it was a "very sad and hard decision" to make, but one she had been forced into as the party "no longer represents the values I hold dear".

Examples of intimidation against what Cllr McLaughlin called moderate members of the party included the local campaign forum sending "observers" to group meetings and calls for every piece of literature put out to constituents checked.

She said: "This group of people want me to pledge allegiance to them first and foremost above my constituents."

Further examples of intimidation included targeted abuse on social media and comments about her history of working alongside Mr Field.

She added: "Many of us have been harangued in group meetings and cabinet members have had complaints made about them for things they didn't actually say."

Cllr McLaughlin said the trouble began around two years ago when she started asking the party for help, but it all came to a head last month, when she was being "absolutely bombarded".

She said: "I wrote at regional level and sent them the social media posts.

"I said you have a duty of care to us as individuals. To protect them from the hard-left clique. I asked them 'would you please fulfil your duty of care to me? Use what information you have to control them – but I didn't even get a response.

"I don't think the moderate number in the Labour group will be the majority for very much longer.

"I don't feel I have got very much control over that.

"Last year, I was selected on a shortlist of one, and I got the third highest proportion of votes on Wirral in my Rock Ferry ward.

"But 12 months down the line, my colleague Cllr Chris Meaden is worrying if she'll even get selected.

"It feels like I haven't got another option but to say I can't work in this environment any more.

"You expect the criticism from other parties, but not from within."

Likening the current day to Labour's Militant period of the 1980s, she said: "The hard-left are working to take control of the council.

"But it's so difficult to run the council in current climate with the budget allocation we have got.

"I don't know where they are going to nick money from, or how they will implement their policies.

"They are not living in the real world. I don't, for a minute, suppose they have got support of people in Wirral and Birkenhead."

Cllr McLaughlin said she had seen "great change" in the party, but said a certain "intolerance" had crept in after Jeremy Corbyn's leadership victory.

She said: "The absolute aggression towards me began when there was leadership contest – I didn't think he could win us an election. I may or may not be wrong.

"Now it's almost sacrilege to say anything online. It's only been in the last two years, really.

"You are allowed one set of views and no other. But there’s been no acknowledgement that this is a serious problem.

"Somehow or other Labour needs to be able to address this or they will make the party unelectable again.

"The wider electorate haven't fully understood the level of control that has been extorted.

"And I don't think the party has got the will or ability to deal with it.

"We haven't reached the chaos [of the Militant days], but we are on the road to that.

"I do not have confidence in the Labour party and no longer want to be associated with it."

Labour North West was contacted for comment.