Another Cardiff Labour councillor resigns from the party, alleging bullying and misogyny

Martin Shipton

A second Cardiff Labour councillor has resigned from the party within a month, accusing the local leadership of tolerating bullying and misogyny – and of seeking to cover up the fact that a male colleague has moved to north Wales.

Non-practising solicitor Cllr Susan Elsmore will now sit as an Independent, alongside her fellow Canton ward councillor Jasmin Chowdhury, who quit the party in January, making similar comments.

In a hard-hitting letter to former Labour colleagues Cllr Elsmore said: “I write to inform you that I have resigned my membership of the Labour Party. Henceforth, I will serve my constituents as an Independent councillor.

“I have been a party member since joining as a young woman in Oxford. There are lots of early achievements I am proud of, including the founding of the first Welfare Rights Centre, which remains open to this day and, as a young lawyer, running the Oxford Citizens Advice Pro-Bono Legal Clinic.

The Labour government decision to join American military forces to invade Iraq was, as a pacifist, a step too far for me. However, in the late noughties I was eventually persuaded to rejoin the party.

“I was first elected to Cardiff council for the ward of Canton in a by-election in 2014, followed by electoral successes in 2017 and 2022. No sooner than being elected I was appointed to Phil Bale’s 2014 cabinet. I am proud of my eight-plus years as a cabinet member: first, health, housing and wellbeing; second, social care, health and wellbeing. There were many achievements, some of which feature below.

“Ending the Right to Buy for Cardiff was a controversial but essential step in safeguarding the council’s remaining social housing stock. It also had the effect of nudging the Welsh Government to follow suit by removing the right to buy across Wales.

“Bringing the adult social services budget into balance was a feat never before achieved. Importantly, so was bringing the quality of social services up to the best, with the support of cabinet colleagues, to achieve the top spot in the local government league tables. Initiating both Dementia Friendly and Age Friendly Cardiff are programmes I am immensely proud of given the impact these have already had and will continue to have on people’s lives.

“I was instrumental in leading the council’s response during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, working in tandem with Cardiff & Vale University Health Board), on which I sat as an Independent Member. Partnerships already established were tested to the limit as our public services system sought to keep us all safe. It was also beneficial that I was a Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) spokesperson for health and social services allowing my close relations with government ministers to ensure that we worked as one system for the benefit of all.

“As the WLGA spokesperson for asylum and refugees I am proud, too, of the leadership that both Cardiff and Wales have shown in relation to the Nation of Sanctuary. In this role I was a member of the National Ministerial Taskforce, as well as Chair of the Wales Strategic Migration Partnership working closely with Welsh local authorities, the third sector, the Welsh Government and the UK Home Office.

“I reference these things because members of the Labour group may be unaware of the history of these achievements, my record having been effectively erased.”

‘Excluded’

Cllr Elsmore continued: “Interestingly, when the Leader [Cllr Huw Thomas] rang to say he was not reappointing me to his 2022 Cabinet, he did not even offer a cursory thank-you, rather commenting that he was surprised I had lasted so long. And, at May 2022 Annual Council, the Leader gave a series of warm tributes to all other outgoing cabinet members, all male colleagues; whereas I was singularly excluded.

“Since joining Cardiff Labour group in February 2014, I have been subject to, and witnessed, reprehensible bullying and intimidation by group members, some of whom remain in key leadership positions. Members of the group will be aware of good colleagues forced out because of repellent behaviours and toxic culture. And we must not pretend that such behaviours have been eradicated.

“Sadly, Canton has now lost two Labour councillors. Despite earnest attempts over many years to resolve multiple concerns, including issues of personal safety, attempts were rebuffed, ignored or dismissed. As an example of how misogyny operates within the group, sometimes covertly, at other times openly, the contrast in work rates is illuminating: I recently calculated that since May 2022, Cllr Chowdhury and I have held 102 surgeries (either street surgery, in-person, or online); our male colleague [Cllr Stephen Cunnah] just one. Meanwhile, no accountability is demanded of an absent colleague [Cllr Cunnah], who moved to north Wales without informing group officers, ward colleagues or branch members.

“Nationally the party has once again been exposed for its betrayal of women and girls. And the absence of accountability within local party structures is stark. I share Cllr Chowdhury’s view that searching questions are essential in order to improve decision-making, equality of engagement, and open governance. Women continue to be marginalised, alienated or removed from the party altogether, while less competent men are rewarded for their failure. None of this happens by accident. The all-pervasive culture of misogyny has been encouraged from the top. The lessons are not learnt.”

Cllr Thomas, who is Welsh Labour’s number one Senedd candidate in the Caerdydd Penarth super-constituency, has been invited to comment.