From blue to red
As another North unitary Conservative councillor leaves the group and joins Labour, a member of the executive says the leader still has his confidence
By Sarah Ward
It’s a second bad week for the leader of North Northamptonshire Council Jason Smithers, as another councillor announced they are leaving the group, following the departure of two others last week.
Kettering councillor Elliott Prentice jumped ship to Labour yesterday, just seven days after Rothwell and Mawsley councillors Joseph Smyth and Cedwien Brown announced they were leaving the group to become independents.
Last week before his defection, Cllr Prentice had told NN Journal he had been unhappy with the politics of the town’s MP Philip Hollobone and had felt unable to campaign or vote for him in the upcoming general election. As we exclusively revealed last week the MP is insisting anyone who wants to stand as a Kettering unitary councillor in the 2025 elections must campaign for him ahead of the parliamentary elections.
Then, Cllr Prentice had not said what his plans were, although he revealed he had left the Kettering constituency group and joined the Daventry association.
Yesterday lunchtime a media release from Labour relayed the news. Cllr Prentice is the second Tory councillor on the North unitary to defect to Labour, following the same move by Corby councillor David Sims last year.
Leader of the Labour group Matt Keane said:
“I am delighted that Cllr Elliot Prentice has decided to join the Labour Party. Elliot will be a brilliant addition to the North Northamptonshire Labour Group and will continue to be a strong voice for the residents of Ise Ward in Kettering.
“Elliot, like many Conservative voters, has seen that Labour has changed and is ready to govern both nationally and in local government.”
Council dynamics
The defections have led to a rebalance in the political makeup of the council which make a difference to the councillors on the committees. Currently the committees are weighted to the Conservatives, who when the council was first elected in 2021, had overall control.
As reported by local democracy reporter Nadia Lincoln,the council is recommending that, in order to “maintain political balance”, the Conservative Group gives a seat to Labour on the Democracy and Standards Committee. A proposal to reduce the Conservative membership on the North Planning Committee by one, with the Labour Group being awarded the vacant seat, has also been put forward.
The Labour Group will be invited to submit their nominations for the revised committee seats to the monitoring officer, with the report to go to full council on Thursday.
New independent alliance
And there will be a new group in the council this week as the four independents, Cllr Martin Griffiths, Cllr Jim Hakewill, Cllr Cedwien Brown and Cllr Joseph Smyth (all former Conservatives) will form a new group called the Independent Alliance. Cllr Hakewill has left the Kettering Green Alliance and will join his fellow Rothwell and Mawsley councillors in the new group.
Member Martin Griffiths said:
“It is all falling apart for the tories.”
Referencing the actions of the leader Jason Smithers, who last week took to X (formerly Twitter) to lambast Highways contractor Kier, he said he is making some big mistakes which ‘if it was not so serious, it would be laughable’.
He said:
“I doubt there will be a move against him by the executive, but I think his backbenchers are unhappy.”
Vote of confidence
The loss of the support of three councillors in a week does not look good for leader Cllr Jason Smithers, however, executive member David Brackenbury told NN Journal yesterday the leader still has his confidence.
He said: “Of course it is a disappointment [that the three councillors have left the group]. But we have a strong team and we are doing everything we can to deliver services for the people of North Northamptonshire.”
The council could decide to have a vote of no confidence in the leader. One third of the authority is needed to make the numbers to make a call for the vote.
However Cllr Brackenbury thinks this would be the wrong thing for the council to do and says Cllr Smithers has his support.
We tried to contact Cllr Smithers for comment but did not receive a response.
I know Elliot. He is one of my councillors. He is actually quite good - energetic and effective - and he was a valuable asset to the local Conservative party. While I don't agree with every word of why he has moved to Labour, and I think he will find some aspects of local Labour policy uncomfortable to support, I understand why he has done what he has. It reflects extremely poorly on Kettering Conservatives and the Conservative group on NNC that they seem to have made no real effort to keep him. I hope Labour select him for the same ward, so I can continue to vote for him.
Hopefully the non-Tory council members will at last get a say in what goes on with puppet master Bone out of the picture as well.