Sign up to FREE email alerts from Liverpool Echo - Weekly Politics Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

A Labour councillor and chief whip who has held his ward for more than 20 years has hit out at the "loony left" after being deselected by his party.

Cllr Ron Abbey, who was first elected in 1996, is the latest Labour "centrist" member to have quit the party or been ousted.

Tweeting on Thursday evening, Cllr Abbey said he was the "victim of socialist workers/Momentum witch hunt", but the Leasowe Labour branch responded by saying he was "was heavily defeated at the best-attended meeting we have had for ages".

Wirral Cllr Abbey was deselected in favour of Karl Greaney, a candidate the branch described as a "long-standing activist and community campaigner".

(Image: Copyright Unknown)

Cllr Abbey's tweet on Thursday said: "Never mind 22 years of representing and significantly improving people's lives. Deselected because I won't be shackled by the loony politics of the left. These people will be the downfall of the Labour Party."

When contacted for comment by the ECHO, he added: "Last night's meeting showed once again that in Wirral and across Merseyside the Labour party is increasingly in the hands of a small, hard-left cabal.

"I was deselected not by the 4,297 Leasowe and Moreton East Labour voters who supported me at the ballot box [in 2015], but by a handful of militants who have seized control of the Labour Party rule book and the Labour party organisation locally.

"It makes a mockery of the party saying they are a broad church."

Responding to Cllr Abbey's comments, Kathy Runswick, chair of the Leasowe Labour Party Branch, said: "It's a shame for Ron, but he was heavily defeated at the best-attended meeting we have had for ages.

Jeremy Corbyn's exclusive interview with the Liverpool Echo:

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

"Members voted for a candidate who supported keeping the guards on the train, opposed building on the green belt, didn't want the coastal car parking charges, opposed NHS privatisation, and wanted a stronger defence of Wirral residents against the Tory spending cuts."

She said those policies were "sensible and popular with the public", adding: "Maybe that's why Leasowe Labour members preferred someone else. We adopted Karl Greaney as our candidate. He's a long-standing local party activist and community campaigner."

(Image: Copyright Unknown)

Cllr Abbey's de-selection is the latest in a list of Labour politicians to leave the party or become deselected in Wirral.

Last week, Cllr Chris Meaden, first elected in 1991, was deselected in favour of former council leader Yvonne Nolan, which followed fellow long-standing Rock Ferry councillor Moira McLaughlin having quit Labour to become an independent the night before.

That's as well as the recent news leader Cllr Phil Davies will stand down in May, Cllr Mike Sullivan having become an independent, and Birkenhead MP Frank Field resigning the party whip.