Friday brief: Labour MP’s foul-mouthed rant and a council leader with an upheld bullying complaint
One year on from Labour’s election to national government all is not good within the party, especially in the North of the county
*Strong language warning
“Can I just check you are all about to make me look like a fucking mug by voting B?
“I’m not in the mood right now for the only funding our town centre has got in 20 years to go up in smoke. Loads of people have put lots of work into this and you’re caving to people that still get a Boules pitch. Honestly I am angry that I put myself out on this campaign beside you, wrote letters to get the money in the fucking first place and your [sic] letting perfect be the enemy of good.”
This is part of the WhatsApp message sent by Wellingborough MP and Labour parliamentary whip Gen Kitchen to the party’s Wellingborough town councillors last month.
The councillors had met to discuss how they would vote at an upcoming town council meeting where there would be a decision on plans for an adventure golf facility at Swanspool Pavillion and Gardens in Wellingborough town centre.
The MP was not happy about the option they had decided to choose. (In the end the whole scheme was scrapped leaving the funding at risk). And we’re told its not the first time she had been throwing her political weight around with local party members.
Two town councillors had been asked by the Independent Socialists of Wellingborough group to attend a meeting to give some updates on what town council activities. The MP had told them they should not go and threatened them with disciplinary action if they did.
A member of the local party told us:
“She is literally trying to control everything. I feel like saying ‘you are the elected MP. What the town council does has nothing to do with you.’
“The whole Labour party is an absolutely bloody mess at the minute. At times I wish I had never got involved. So many people in the party are disillusioned.”
Gen Kitchen told us:
“I apologise for the language I used. Whilst I am passionate about securing funding for Wellingborough and Rushden, I certainly did not mean my frustrations at the situation to be perceived as a personal attack on any individual.
"I want to work hand in hand with our excellent town councillors on our joint mission to get the best for our area, and I am dedicated to delivering for them and our residents.”
It’s all a long way from 12 months ago today when five Labour MPs were elected to parliament in Northamptonshire. Gen Kitchen had won a by-election in February against disgraced Tory MP Peter Bone’s partner Helen Harrison and four months later Kitchen was joined by four other MPs representing Corby, Kettering and Northampton.
On the night it seemed that after the collapse of the Tory party, Labour would dominate the political landscape, but just as the national party has had a bad year, having to make u -turns on a number of unpopular key policies, it has not been great in Northants.
In May the seemingly impossible happened and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK took control of both unitary councils, wiping out the Tory majority and also hammering Labour. Kettering, which used to have a strong Labour showing, has now been left without any Labour councillors on either the unitary or town council.
And the Labour heartland of Corby has been seemingly lost to Reform. Only two unitary councillors from Corby remain, although the party has held control of the town council. But there are issues within the Corby and East Northants Constituency Labour Party, with internal fallouts and long running tensions.
Last month party member and former councillor Matt Reay announced via social media his departure from the Labour Party after 15 years of membership.
In a Facebook post he said:
“I find it impossible to remain in a local party where male members can intimidate and act aggressively towards female members and still be eligible for office. Those aren’t my values.
“. . if politics has taught me anything, it’s that I’m not strong enough to compromise what I believe in for the sake of keeping peace.”
Reay was alerting people to the newly elected leader of Corby Town Council Simon Rielly, who in December had an internal party complaint upheld against him. At a local party meeting in 2023 he had shouted aggressively at some members and a complaint was filed against him, with one witness describing his behaviour as ‘dangerous’.
Twelve months later the party found he had breached the party code concerning bullying and harrassment and told him the formal warning was the highest level of warning a member can receive and would remain on his file for 18 months.
But by then he had already been selected as a candidate to stand in the unitary elections and the party did not remove his candidacy. He did not retain his unitary council ward, losing out to Reform, but was elected to the town council and then voted in in May by his fellow councillors as leader.
He did not make the complaint against him public and many in the party were unaware until Reay’s disclosure.
One female party member told us:
“I don’t think it is right for people like Simon to be in charge. It has led to women not going to meetings. Activists are leaving. I have been disillusioned for the last year.
“I think people are just exhausted.”
Another, who is remaining in the party but is unhappy, said:
“He (Rielly) made be feel inadequate. I would say it’s bullying. I am going to remain a party member as I believe in Labour values, but I don’t like the way the party is going and they need to change things. Or are we going to continue to fight our own people?”
NN Journal put a series of questions to Cllr Rielly, asking why he had not disclosed his upheld bullying complaint to fellow councillors and whether he was a factor in the toxic atmosphere within the local branch.
He sent this reply:
“It is an absolute privilege to lead this council, and I want to work with all my colleagues to deliver for our residents.”
We asked the Labour Party’s regional administration why Cllr Rielly was allowed to take on the leadership of the town council when he had a misconduct complaint upheld against him.
A Labour spokesperson said:
“The Labour Party does not comment on individual complaints. The party takes all complaints seriously and they are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures.”
This unforthcoming response from the regional party is something that in researching this story NN Journal has heard time again. Members say the party locally and nationally appears to be burying its head in the sand and not listening, as well as taking members for granted.
One said:
“It took ten days after the election for the party to thank everyone for their efforts. That was after weeks of constant pressure before the election for people to knock doors, donate money.”
Another said:
“They have asked for feedback after the election so they can assess what went wrong, but have not shared that with us. The party is in real danger of losing to Reform at the next election and we need to connect with voters again.”
News in brief
A 21-year-old man from Newcastle has been arrested in connection with a rape in Wellingborough.
A teenage girl was raped on Tuesday between 2.30pm and 3.15pm in a field close to the embankment and was then followed by the man before she could escape.
The suspect has been released on bail while enquiries continue.
Police are appealing for anyone with information or dash-cam footage to contact them on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.
The overspend on the schools’ budget in West Northamptonshire now sits at £18.1m. The schools forum met this week and heard that the overspend rose by £5.4m in the most recent 2024/25 financial year and the rise was due to an overspend in the high needs budget.
There is a lack of capacity in the area for SEN placements meaning that over the last year the need for independent places has increased by 30 per cent.
The overspend in high needs has been partly lessened up by savings in the early years, as delays have meant the early years sectors has not been able to spend all of its funding.
A county partnership aimed at combatting drug and alcohol addiction has produced a documentary.
Breaking the Chains of Addiction, which features the experiences of nine people living in Northants, was commissioned by the Northamptonshire Combatting Drugs and Alcohol Partnership and produced by One to One Development Trust.
It features personal stories from early addiction through to recovery. The film can be viewed here.
It appears the Labour Party is disintegrating at both a national and local level as a consequence of loosing it moral compass and the traditional values that Labour stands for. Their attacks on the poorest in our society (the disabled, pensioners those with more than two children etc), it's disgraceful immigration policies and failure to welcome historic immigration to the UK, it's support for the Israeli government in committing genocide in Gaza, it's failure to move rapidly to net zero and thereby contributing to global heating and its continuing support for the rich who are growing richer by the day whilst the poor are getting poorer) is shameful.
But rather than a reassessment of why things are going so wrong the LP appears to be hunkering down in the bunker and threatening members if they show dissent. No wonder so many historic supporters and members are dissolusioned and seeking alternatives.
Gen Kitchen may well be right about Swanspool gardens and the failure of the town council to cease an opportunity to improve our town (and I agree on this - the Tory controlled council is bereft of ideas and solutions to it's decline) but her reaction was disgraceful.
In the last four months the Northamptonshire Green party gained 125 new members. That's one per day. Many are refugees from the Labour Party.