THE chairperson of Bromsgrove District Council resigned from the Labour Party due to her "outrage" with the Labour leadership and candidate selection process.

Councillor Sam Ammar applied to become the party's prospective parliamentary candidate for Bromsgrove but was unsuccessful.

She is now an independent councillor on the district council and is standing as an independent candidate in next month's general election.

In her resignation statement, she said: "I am resigning as the chair of Bromsgrove Constituency Labour Party and as a Labour councillor due to my outrage with the Labour leadership and the NEC candidate selection process. The head office has hijacked democracy and purposely delayed our selection to stitch up our local party and ensure that the one person from a Palestinian heritage in the whole country who applied for Parliament with unanimous CLP support doesn't get anywhere near the candidacy.

"I led the Labour Party in Bromsgrove from a party that had no quorum in meetings (less than 5 people turning up in 2021) with only 3 councillors to eight councillors in 3 years. I chaired the party and created hybrid meetings, turned up for every meeting but two in the last three years, created placards, town centre campaigns, designed flyers, and GOTV last year.

"I applied for one place only to become the parliamentary candidate, despite being encouraged to apply for "winnable seats" I wasn't interested, I was only interested in continuing my service in Bromsgrove, where I feel welcomed, loved and part of a warm society and caring community. I didn't just want to be an MP, I wanted to be the MP for Bromsgrove.

"Responding to councillor Ammar's resignation statement, a Labour spokesperson said: “We are focussed on electing a Labour government and delivering the change that people in Bromsgrove and across the country need.

"We have selected a very experienced candidate in Neena Gill, who represented the local area for 16 years as a Member of the European Parliament.”

Also standing in the forthcoming election is Bradley Thomas for the Conservatives, David Nicholl for the Liberal Democrats, Glen Brampton for Reform UK, Talia Ellis for the Green Party, and Aheesha Zahir for the Workers Party.