Your View: Fit to govern?

Charlotte Mead

Sheffield Branch Leader

Women’s Equality Party

In recent months we have seen two Labour councillors suspended by their own group: Councillor Maroof  for sending a picture of a topless woman to the Mums United Group on Whatsapp and last week Councillor Scott was suspended pending an investigation into his business dealings.

A third, Councillor Gibson, was recently investigated for running a harassment campaign through a fake twitter account. Whilst he was cleared of any wrongdoing, Sheffield Council concluded that running fake twitter accounts to send abuse falls outside the scope of the Members’ Code of Conduct. If we add to this the Labour Party’s handling of complaints against Jared O’Mara, MP for Sheffield Hallam, and the length of time it took them to investigate the complaints, you really have to ask the question: if this is how they run their party, are they fit to govern our city?

People don’t have to vote for the usual suspects. There are other parties standing in the local elections in May. The Women’s Equality Party is one of them. I would urge residents to make their voices heard in the local elections on May 2 and to consider all the options on their ballot paper. Imagine if Sheffield, the birthplace of the UK’s first women’s suffrage organisation, the Sheffield Women’s Political Association, elected the first Women’s Equality Party representative.