ONE of the most remarkable reactions to Labour’s twisting and turning over its position on Israel’s savage assault on Gaza has been the defection of local councillors away from Labour to sit as independents.

Perhaps a hundred or so councillors have left, and in some cases have cost Labour control of the council — such as in Hastings, Oxford and Burnley.

Labour shows an apparent indifference to losing councillors and councils, some in parliamentary seats covering the former mill towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire that must be won back for it to form the next government.

Maybe it believes the polls and the results of recent parliamentary by-elections that it will win the general election no matter what.

But maybe it’s in for a shock. It may be purging the PLP of elements deemed not sufficiently committed to the Keir Starmer project, but councillors are mainly leaving voluntarily, not being expelled or otherwise victims of the usually corrupt Labour Party regional apparatus.

Furthermore, councillors are organising. We have established a network that links independent councillors from Bristol in the south-west to Newcastle in the north-east and Hastings in the south-east to Burnley in the north-west of England.

For some of the newly independent councillors, Gaza and Labour’s fulsome support for Israeli military action was the spark that made them leave. For others, Gaza was the endpoint of a process of disaffection with the direction Starmer was leading the party.

Be it reneging on the 10 pledges with which he duped many Labour members that he represented “Corbynism without Corbyn,” to gerrymandering local government candidate selections, to dropping the green economic policies — its inability to call for a ceasefire in Gaza was the final straw in a long line of disappointments.

The independent councillors’ organisation has now been extended to holding a conference with the title No Ceasefire, No Vote to be held in two parts, firstly in London on March 2 and secondly in Blackburn on April 13.

The conference will examine ways of taking the Independent and left agenda forward and providing support and solidarity to those Independent councillors who will be up for election in the local government elections on May 2.

Alongside the focus on Gaza, the conference will deal with a range of other issues including firstly, local government cuts and the neoliberal agenda, racism and Islamophobia and the abandoning of climate commitments.

Secondly, we will look at organising to win: the network is not in the business of chalking up a string of lost deposits; we want to win at every governmental level.

Thirdly, we want to make common cause with each other, to make Independent candidates a political force outside and to the left of Labour. We also want to look at ways that the anti-war movement can make common cause with the organised labour movement.

Speakers will include Councillor Sophie Wilson from Sheffield City Council. Sophie has ensured that her council has already passed a motion pledging not to issue a “work notice” under the terms of the draconian Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act should its staff go on strike.

The conference will hear from Salma Yaqoob, former leader of the Respect Party who has been a councillor in Birmingham and was re-elected in that role. Also, Andrew Murray, former Unite chief of staff and adviser to Jeremy Corbyn, will make a contribution, as will Lindsey German from Stop the War Coalition.

Independent councillors from across England will be contributing, including Dr Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini (Oxford), Zoe Goodman (Bristol) Afrasiab Anwar (Burnley), Mary Mason (Haringey) and Suleman Khonat (Blackburn).

Links have been established with independents contesting elections at other levels of government including Jamie Driscoll, the independent candidate for north-east metro mayor after being unceremoniously dumped by Labour, who will join the conference by video.

ANC veteran Andrew Feinstein and British-Palestinian Leanne Mohamad who are contesting Holborn St Pancras, Starmer’s seat, and Ilford North, Wes Streeting’s seat, respectively, will be participating in person over the course of the day.

We will also be joined by fashion designer Katharine Hamnet who this week was famously photographed throwing her CBE medal into a dustbin in protest at the British government’s support for Israel in its war in Gaza.

There is political life outside of Labour that this conference will show. You’re all very welcome to come along to experience it.

Register for the No Ceasefire, No Vote conference on March 2 at www.noceasefirenovote.org — £5 registration fee to help cover costs.

Councillor Lotte Collett is leader of the Independent Socialist Group on Haringey Council in north London.