IT’S TWO years since I resigned from the Labour Party, and I haven’t regretted it for a single day.

The week my growing unease came to a head, two things happened: firstly, Diane Abbott was suspended for a maladroit comment for which she immediately apologised and corrected herself; secondly, the PM accepted hospitality from a construction company that had failed to remediate four housing blocks covered in flammable cladding, had been taken to court and fined £10 million.

My phone had rung all morning and as Opposition Labour Group leader at the “murderous” Kensington and Chelsea Council, I wrote to the PM to ask for an apology to our traumatised residents. I was severely told off, “you can’t criticise the PM!” That was IT. Within a matter of hours I had resigned from the leadership and the party, after 40 years’ membership, and since then have sat on the council as an independent. The party’s indefensible position on the Gaza genocide confirmed my action was timely.

Being independent has impacted hugely on my life and work. I can sleep with a clear conscience, say what I mean, and focus on issues that matter most to my constituents without being scrutinised for every word and action. I am here to serve the people, not the party. I am, frankly, happier.

The hugely consequential local and mayoral elections on May 1 have shaken the Labour Party to the core — whatever they say to brazen it out.

Many of the newbie Labour MPs are now aware they will never be re-elected under the current regime. Labour is “done.” The electorate was looking for change and — shockingly — plumped for the upbeat, racist, beery cheeriness of Reform.

Was that really the only alternative to the “former Labour Party” as I call it? There is a new generation of people mobilised by the Gaza genocide who were previously indifferent to local and national politics; how will they vote next time?

The Greens are certainly in the ascendant, and we have to accept that they do democracy better than most — especially compared to the clearly anti-democratic Labour Party. While to my mind Green policies need clarity, detail and muscle to support their aspirations, their environmental focus is the only way forward to slow or reverse climate change and save the planet. Maybe a refreshed leadership will fill in the gaps here?

Lib Dems? Well I find it hard to take them seriously and for me their centrism is utterly bland and unappealing; recent history in the coalition Tory government also mitigates against any degree of trust.

And what about the left, currently a broiling pit of discussion, debate and conjecture? Having carried out some research I found over 20 political parties on the left, and about the same again of well-known groups, campaigns and movements. But even as I carry out my survey, they regularly emerge, coalesce or disappear entirely.

Any hints of secrecy or backroom deals are an instant turn-off; it’s all rather messy. Rumours abide about one group or another about to make a huge announcement that they will be “The One” that brings all the disparate groups together and mobilise the hundreds of thousands of disaffected socialists, pro-Palestine and community-based campaigns.

And still we wait.

Having spoken to countless activists in these groups, I’m not convinced that this is convincing or indeed is the way forward. We need to do democracy even better than the Greens, and bring along with us the armies of keen newly inspired volunteers and activists, without bringing them under the cosh of “The One,” even a revitalised “One.”

We need to form alliances where they can work. Why feel guilty when we agree with a Tory MP standing up for Palestine? And we need to “disagree well” and constructively if we are to work together meaningfully.

If the Labour Party sticks to its current trajectory they will be slaughtered in the 2026 local elections, and any parliamentary by-elections along the way. And so they should be.

And if we on the left can’t offer a serious, democratic, meaningful, inclusive and community-based alternative, we don’t deserve to succeed.

I’m supporting a broad alliance to work with the numerous lively new groups and local parties working hand in hand with their communities, who have emerging local leaders with some brilliant ideas. It’s the new way to do democracy, and we need to embrace it and make it work.

We cannot afford to fail our communities, but to represent them properly we must do better than repeating the mistakes of the past, and grow legions of leaders and activists who can work together, ground up, offering consensus and hope.