UKIP councillor in Clacton joins Labour

UKIP's Jack Parsons at the Tendring District Council election count 2015. Photo: Su Anderson

A councillor in Clacton has defected to Labour from UKIP over the newly-elected party leader’s views on privatising the NHS.

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Jack Parsons was elected for the UK Independence Party for the St Paul’s ward on Tendring District Council in May 2015.

But this week he announced he would be re-joining the Labour Party – which he was a member of between 2002 and 2009 – saying it was the only party looking to protect the NHS.

Mr Parsons made the decision to move after Paul Nuttall won the UKIP leadership election. Mr Nuttall had previously said he wanted to see marketisation of the NHS, saying the health service was stifled by a lack of competition – though more recently he downplayed the earlier remarks, saying he wanted to see the NHS “streamlined”.

The defection comes in the week Clacton MP Douglas Carswell – UKIP’s only MP – suggested the party should be targeting Labour voters in areas such as Ipswich.

Mr Parsons said: “It has been coming for a while now, I have not been happy with UKIP locally or nationally since the [Brexit] referendum result. I have not been impressed with the way they have conducted themselves.

“It is a party whose leader stood down after 18 days and who had a punch-up in Strasbourg – it is laughable really.

“The straw that broke the camel’s back was when Paul Nuttall was elected and the fact he was in favour of privatising the NHS, which is a completely barbaric view and one I am not willing to support. He is a real risk to the future of the NHS and that needs to be stopped.

“Protecting the NHS has always been a red line for me.”

Mr Parsons said he decided to rejoin Labour partly due to his previous membership, and as they were “the only party that has protected the NHS as a key priority”, and also as it was a party of the working class.

Although he would not say if supported Jeremy Corbyn, Mr Parsons said he backed the democratic nature of the Labour party, being largely controlled by its members – adding that any leader who could win two internal elections with such a majority deserved the “utmost respect” and full support.

Mr Parsons also described Mr Carswell as ”a Tory wearing a purple tie” who did not have UKIP “in his heart”.