Plymouth City Councillor defects to UKIP

A Tory councillor in Plymouth is the first UKIP defection of the year.

Councillor Peter Berrow, a councillor for Southway on Plymouth City Council, defected to UKIP last night after becoming increasingly disillusioned with the Tories.

I entered politics to represent local people and increasingly I have found that the Conservative leadership both in government and at Plymouth City Council are ignoring local communities.

I have become increasingly frustrated with the Conservative leadership at Plymouth City Council who are not taking account of local community voices in much of their decision making.

I am very much encouraged by UKIP's longstanding policies for local government, including referendums on major planning decisions.

I have decided that now is the time to stand up for my local community by joining UKIP so that in the forthcoming May elections I can speak freely and openly about how this council and this Government are letting our local community down.

Councillor Berrow will find UKIP a refreshing change from the Tories.  There is no top-down dictating from the party, there is no whip, just the freedom to pursue a truly local agenda.  Although Councillor Berrow is the only UKIP councillor on Plymouth City Council, my experience of being a councillor has been that being a non-LibLabCon councillor makes it much easier to deal with other councillors because the Tories are usually too busy trying to score points off Labour and vice versa to bother playing games with you.