A Brixton Hill Ward councillor has defected to the Conservative Party.  Although her decision is a massive slap in the face for thousands of voters who backed Labour in 2006, she will not be much of a loss.  Since being elected Betty has done almost nothing for local people and at the height of the MPs expenses scandal demanded extra allowances for herself.

Betty Evans-Jacas was elected as a Labour councillor in May 2006.  She was elected in a voter backlash against a Tory-Lib Dem coalition that forced council tax up 40%, closed older people’s day care centres, refused to fund work to register thousands of black people to vote, did nothing to improve sub-standard housing and overcrowding, and left Lambeth with the worst funded youth services and highest levels of youth crime in London.

But her decision to switch sides appears to have little to do with political principles or values.  As a member of Labour’s National Policy Forum she never expressed dissatisfaction with party policy.

Betty was Lambeth’s representative on the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA).  The committee is chaired by the Conservatives and the vice-chair is Labour.  Betty persuaded the Tories to back her against Labour’s candidate as vice chair, a position which attracts a financial allowance.  She only backed off When Labour instructed her to stand down or face disciplinary action for standing against her own party’s nominee.  The Tories immediately spread the word that Betty was preparing to join them.

After that incident, I talked to Betty about other roles she might take on.  As soon as we started the discussion Betty questioned what extra allowances she might expect.  I told her there was no way I could invent a job just to put public money in her bank account.  That would have been tantamount to giving a bribe not to defect.
 
Betty has been a disappointment as a local representative.  She frequently fails to turn up for her public advice surgeries leaving queues of people disappointed.  She does less case work than almost any other councillor in Lambeth - just two pieces of case work in twelve months, compared to over 450 cases I dealt with over the same period.  She has never taken part in a school visit in her ward or gone on an estate walk-about with residents, and she has refused to join local people in campaigns against noisy late-night bars and clubs.  A resident once commented to me at a public meeting “we don’t really think Betty cares about us”. 

On her first full day as a Tory councillor, Betty again failed to turn up to her advice surgery.  The Tories have put out a letter in Betty's name telling her Brixton residents that if they want to see her in future they will have to travel at their own expense to Norwood where she lives.

So it’s goodbye to Betty, who has betrayed her local voters by defecting to a party that has a record of utter contempt for the people and area she represents.  But more than that, Betty’s betrayed her own values.  She won't dare stand down and fight a by-election as a Tory in Brixton Hill because she knows she'll lose in a ward where the Tories come fourth.  How ironic that Betty quit less than 24 hours after Labour chose a fresh new candidate with a strong record of local campaigning to replace her at next year’s council elections.

TURNCOAT: Cllr Evans-Jacas has joined the right-wing Tories but is running scared of a by-election after four years of doing little for local people