Tory councillor defects to Labour

The Rotherham Conservative Councillors Group announced that Anston and Woodsetts ward councillor Darren Hughes had left their ranks around three weeks ago due to “a breakdown in personal and political relations with other councillors.”

Now the councillor, elected to Rotherham Borough Council back in 2008, has confirmed that he has made the move across the floor to staunch rivals Labour.

In a letter to his constituents Cllr Hughes revealed: “In order to maintain your credibility and integrity it’s important to ensure you represent what you believe in. 

“If that belief changes, as in my own case, it’s important to evaluate and assess this change to ensure you are still representing a political group that meets these beliefs.

“Over the past eighteen months working within the Conservative group was proving quite difficult. 

“Their stance on local priorities and that of my own view have become quite distant.

“To this end I held discussions with the Labour group of Rotherham Borough Council and following those discussions realised that we have more common ground in our priorities and policies for Rotherham than the opposition.”

Cllr Hughes had held the positions of constituency chairman for the Rother Valley Conservative Association and deputy chairman for the Conservative Party for South Yorkshire prior to his departure on July 26.

Now he will stand-side-by-side with the borough council’s controlling Labour Party councillors.

The leader of the Rotherham Conservative Group, Cllr John Gilding, this week admitted that there had been differences of opinion within the Conservative camp ahead of Cllr Hughes’ departure.

This week a spokesman for Rotherham Labour Group said: “Over the past two years Cllr Hughes has worked conscientiously and with principle to support the residents of Anston and Woodsetts and the wider community of Rotherham. 

“It is encouraging that Cllr Hughes now feels that those best interests are well served by the Labour Party in Rotherham."