Dudley councillor Steve Edwards, who has been a Labour supporter all his life, speaks exclusively to Mark Andrews from the Express & Star about being thrown out of the Labour Party for disagreeing with PM Sir Keir Starmer. He talks about his upbringing and his love for the working class.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Councillor Steve Edwards, who in May last year was elected for the ward of
00:08Brockmore and Pensnet as a Labour candidate, has been expelled from the
00:14Labour Party after writing a letter to Sir Keir Starmer, accusing him of lying
00:23to the British public and turning his back on working-class people. Since then
00:29he has expanded on his comments saying he is a massive liar. Councillor Steve
00:35Edwards is here today to explain his version of events and why he said the
00:40things he did. Well I've been a member of the Labour Party originally I think in
00:442017 but rejoined in 2022, you know, knowing that the country was in dire
00:51straits really and hopefully looking forward to getting a Labour government
00:55that would rightly come in and look after the working class, which is why the
01:00Labour government is in existence, to support the working class, to promote
01:06the working class and to be representative of the working class. I
01:10campaigned obviously for Keir Starmer to get in control, to become
01:14Prime Minister, but in reality about six or seven months before his election I
01:21did, I was feeling a bit, I had certain reservations about him and from things
01:28he was saying, he was remaining silent on some stuff, that was attacks on the
01:31working class by the Conservative government and I was thinking but you
01:34know hopefully he's playing the long game and we'll get in and Keir Starmer will
01:38come out fully in support of the working class. Now obviously he got
01:41elected on various promises to look after the pensioners, to ensure children
01:47were fed, to get children out of poverty and within weeks of him getting elected
01:52obviously all that was up in the air and he went back on everything he
01:55said he was going to do. Obviously we had the winter fuel allowance which was
01:59taking money off pensioners who were, I think the cut-off point was about
02:03£11,000 a year. Now national minimum wage is what, £19,000, £20,000 a year now, so if
02:09the government in one hand are saying people need £20,000 a year to just
02:13survive, how can he cut off winter fuel benefits for somebody on £11,000. So that
02:18was the big catalyst for me to to start attacking Keir Starmer's principles
02:24and policies because I thought he went back on everything he originally stood
02:28for. And the letter you wrote, what prompted you to write this letter? So in
02:34December last year we had a by-election in my ward in Brockmore and Penznet.
02:39Brockmore and Penznet in May had actually become one of the safest wards in
02:43Dudley Borough. We returned three Labour councillors with, I think we had a
02:48majority, you know, we passed through with 66% of the vote, got three good local
02:54councillors who wanted to do good for Brockmore and Penznet. But then we
02:59have to have this by-election in December because one of the councillors
03:02stepped away and Labour come third behind the Conservatives and behind
03:07Reform and second. On the doorstep everybody was telling us that they're
03:11moving in the direction of Reform because Keir Starmer's betrayed the
03:15working class and gone back on everything he said he was going to do
03:18for the working class. So at that point I put a post on Facebook, you know,
03:25calling out Keir Starmer. That had quite a lot of attention and then obviously we
03:30see all this, we've seen in recent weeks the bashing of people on benefits as if
03:35they're the issue with this country and they're causing all the problems. At the
03:39same time you see people like Liz Kendall blaming people on benefits and
03:43saying winter fuel allowance needs to be stopped. Well they're all getting their
03:46benefits, they're all getting their eating allowance, they're all getting their
03:48second home allowance, they're all getting their food allowance, their drink
03:51allowance. They're taking every allowance and every benefit they can while
03:55pointing the finger at the worst off in society who are the very people they
03:58were elected to represent. So this week I sent a letter to Keir Starmer
04:04talking about those issues and him going back on his promises but
04:09obviously within Dudley, as across most of the country now, people are doing
04:14their own localised budgets. We've been scrutinising the Dudley budget
04:17for 2025-2026 and within this budget, you know, it's an atrocious budget.
04:23There's going to be £42 million worth of cuts and as every
04:27powerful party does, you know, we're led by the Conservatives in Dudley, they're
04:31attacking the poor, we're cutting children's services, we're cutting
04:35mental health services, we're cutting adult social care services but they're also
04:40putting up council tax. Now one of Keir Starmer's big promises was that there
04:46would definitely be no council tax rises across the country if he was elected as
04:50Prime Minister. So, you know, my point to him and the letter to him was pleading
04:55with him, more or less begging him to, you know, step in here and ensure that
04:59people haven't got to have the maximum allowed rise on council tax, which is
05:04going to bankrupt people. I mean we're going about bankrupting the council but
05:08you know, these huge rises in council tax and other taxes are just
05:12bankrupting people, let alone the country. Do you blame him and the government
05:16rather than the council itself for the rise in council tax?
05:21I think he's got a lot to answer on that. Now, I mean, obviously we've had 14 years
05:25of a Conservative government and, you know, we've had eight years of a local
05:30Conservative council and there's been mismanagement and there's been
05:35funding cuts, you know, I think the Tory government took £150
05:39million from the localised budget. Well, you know, no borough in the
05:43country is going to survive if you just withdraw big, large sums of money. But to
05:49me, Keir Starmer coming on a set of promises and him going back on them
05:54promises is what the issue. I'll be honest, as somebody who's a Labour Party
05:58member and believes that the Labour Party are the best party to promote
06:02social justice and inclusion, I'm more annoyed at Keir Starmer for how he's acting as
06:08leader of the Labour Party than I am for Conservatives for the way that they act.
06:12I expect certain things from the Conservatives which I never really
06:15expected from the Labour Party. What's the reaction to being among your
06:20council colleagues in the, or your council colleagues, you know, in the Labour
06:23group? How have they reacted to this? So, I mean, they've been, actually, they've
06:29been very supportive of me. I know Pete Lowe, who's the leader of the local party, put out
06:34a statement the other day, you know, saying I'd be a big loss and he's known
06:38me for a number of years, which he has. We started Black Country Day and
06:42continued with Black Country Festival together. So, you know, we've all been
06:46about community and promoting the community. At points they did say, you
06:50know, maybe word things a little bit better, but for me, I was elected to
06:56represent the working class, not the Labour Party. Yes, yes, I did it because I
06:59believe the Labour Party was the best vehicle, but now the Labour Party have
07:04foregone on all their principles for the reason I joined. I'll take it as a badge
07:09of honour, really, for Keir Starmer to get so annoyed and kick me out for
07:13representing the working class. It's quite quick, the announcement, the
07:18expulsion. Were you surprised by that? I was surprised by how quick it was. I
07:23think I wrote to Keir Starmer on the Monday, which I sent as a letter and
07:26also as an email. So, an email gets directly there and by the Friday morning,
07:31I'd been told that my membership had been terminated. Now, in reality, whether
07:35it goes up to Keir Starmer and he makes that decision or whether it's, you know,
07:39people are up in the food chain compared to where I am. Obviously, we have
07:42regional than national offices. Whether it's just somebody within the national
07:48office saying, look, let's get rid of this lad. He's shouting too much in
07:51support of the working class. We want to attack the working class and
07:55blame the working class. So, we need to keep his voice quiet. But, you know, as I
07:59said, it seems to have had the opposite effect because I'm sitting here now
08:02doing TV interviews and radio interviews and newspaper interviews. So, it's a bit
08:07of a badge of honour for me. And this was a private letter, nobody else knew about
08:10it. So, originally, before, I did publish the letter on social media, which is the
08:15way of the world these days. But before I published it on social media, I'd sent it
08:20on to the Prime Minister. Yeah. And what for you now? I mean, you're an
08:25independent councillor at the moment. I mean, do you rule out joining a
08:29different political party? No, for me, I'm an independent because the problem I
08:35have with political parties at the minute is the reality is, if we look at
08:40the leader of all the political parties, regardless of whether some of their
08:43policies are amicable and I can go along with them, they're all
08:46multi-millionaires who were born multi-millionaires. There's nobody,
08:49really, who represents the working class. There's nobody who speaks with a
08:53regional accent. There's nobody who, you know, gets the spellings wrong or
08:57makes mistakes or will admit their mistakes. We've just got a bunch of
09:00rich, rich people who think, actually, we'll take control. So, we all end up with
09:05the same monolithic thing, really. We just all end up with a bunch of
09:08establishment stooges who want to lead the working class off the edge of a cliff.
09:14So, also, is it the Unity Alliance now? It's the
09:19Independents and the Liberal Democrats. Would you be interested in...?
09:23I wouldn't know and, obviously, I'll get on with, luckily, through the work I've
09:27done over the last 15 years with Black Country Day and Festival, actually, I'll
09:31get on really well with a lot of the councillors and that will always be the
09:34way it is and always should be that way, you know, but I'll vote with what's right
09:39rather than what's whipped and that'll be the way that I look at it.
09:43Obviously, in Blackpool and Penzant, they've lost you and they've lost, and
09:47Judy Foster's stood down. What's the atmosphere in that party? Are there any
09:51problems in the ward party? So, in reality, no. I mean, Karen
09:56Westwood, who I've known for quite a while now and was my Labour
10:00colleague in the ward, is also a very good friend of mine. We've committed to
10:04keep working together to get what's best for the people of Brockmoor and
10:06Penzant. In December this year, Alex Stile was elected. He was a
10:11Conservative, but we've had various meetings and we're all on the same page,
10:15whereas, actually, if we can just get things happening in Brockmoor and
10:18Penzant, then that's all that matters. Brockmoor and Penzant have suffered over the
10:21years. The parks are all outdated or unused or trashed. There's nothing
10:27really that goes on within the ward. So, the three of us now, actually, coming
10:32from three different parties, allows us all to come together in the middle and
10:36create something better for Brockmoor and Penzant. And how do you see
10:41being an independent? Do you think it'll make your job more difficult, do you think?
10:45So, obviously, today is the first day I've been at the council house since I was
10:49booted from the Labour Party on Friday. Already, it's a little bit weird because,
10:53obviously, I've no longer got access to the Labour group room.
10:57I haven't seen any colleagues yet to have a proper, full conversation, but
11:01to me, although I was in a party, I would have always acted of an independent mind.
11:07You join parties because you believe, actually, the people within that party
11:12will have similar views for you, so it's easier to get things happening if you've
11:15all got a similar view. But I always voted for what was right for the people.
11:20I mean, this year, we had a vote where the Conservatives put a motion to the
11:24council to write to Keir Starmer to call him out for the winter fuel allowance.
11:29The party was whipped to vote against that because it was going to be an
11:31embarrassment for the government. Well, I voted for what was right to write to
11:36Keir Starmer and call him out for what he was doing. So, for me, I'll always have
11:39an independent mind anyway, but at the forefront, it's just what's better for
11:44the working class and for the people who elect you.
11:46Are there any more who are likely to follow you, do you believe?
11:49I think there's a few that are disgruntled, but that's for them to say whether they're...
11:55They've voiced it themselves on social media, so it's not like I'm speaking out
11:59of school there, but I would hope not in one respect, because the truth is I've
12:04stayed in the Labour Party to try and change things within the Labour Party.
12:08Now, obviously, I've rackled a few cages and they've kicked me out, but I do believe
12:13if you want to enforce change, sometimes you have to have a voice within that party
12:18to get the change that you want. So, I don't think I'm going to be able to
12:22influence anything in the Labour Party now, whereas while I was inside the Labour
12:26Party, at least they're reacting to what I was offering them.
12:30Would you have stayed within the Labour Party if you hadn't been exposed?
12:34Would you have considered resigning?
12:35No, I wouldn't have resigned. I was elected as a Labour Party councillor and a Labour
12:40Party member. I do believe where I live, it's where I grew up and where I was born
12:45and where all my family's from, so I do believe people vote for the person as well
12:49as the party, but people voted for me knowing what my principles was, knowing what my core
12:54principles was. So, I would have stayed within the party, but I'd have been challenging
12:59Keir Starmer every step of the way.
13:01How's it going to feel if you want to stand for the election, you find yourself standing
13:05against a Labour candidate, and as you've obviously discovered, it's by no means guaranteed
13:12that either you or a Labour candidate would get in. How would you feel about that?
13:16I mean, I stood as an independent candidate in 2021 against Labour and the Conservatives.
13:23I didn't win. I got a fair few votes. I think I got about 600 votes off just being me and
13:28the work I'd done, which was quite a lot of votes. It was 20% of the vote share I got
13:34as a complete independent. Lots of people now are telling me to look, just keep going
13:39and stand as an independent again. My only issue is, if I've achieved nothing by the
13:44time 2027 comes, there's no point keep fighting the good fight if nobody's going to listen
13:49to you, and that's my only worry. I'll always stand up for the people where I come from
13:54in Brockmere and Pennsendet, but you can only flog a dead horse so many times before you're
13:59at the brick wall.
14:01There's no elections this year. Is that a good thing from a Labour point of view? How
14:05do you think Labour would do it?
14:06I think if there was elections this year, I think Labour would get wiped out locally.
14:11I think reform are on the up. They're saying good things, good populist policies, people
14:17who say what you need to hear to get elected. But the truth is, to me, it's all on Keir
14:25Starmer and the Conservatives. The reason their vote share are dropping is not because
14:29they're great, it's because they're terrible. Keir Starmer's attacked the working class
14:33so much that local councillors, no matter how hard they work, no matter how much they
14:37achieve, the overriding view in people's minds is you're a representative of the Labour
14:43party, and therefore a representative of Keir Starmer. That's one of the reasons I was ensuring
14:48I was publicly calling him out and disagreeing with everything that I disagreed with in Brockmere.
14:52You've said several times the word attacking the working class. Is it particularly the
14:57winter fuel payments and the benefit cap? Are they the major...?
15:01So obviously there's the two child benefit cap, which I think is a major issue. We've
15:05got one of the highest rates of poverty ever seen in this country, even going back to the
15:09Victorian times. I believe that the working class are the real wealth creators in this
15:16country. We can praise billionaires. We look to them like we should all achieve to do what
15:22James Dyson's done. But people like James Dyson, they built their business off British
15:27Taxpayers Innovation Fund, and then as soon as they made the money, they go and live abroad
15:32and they move headquarters to Singapore, whereas the working class not only work to
15:35build this country, they spend all their money within the communities and they keep things
15:39moving. So I think they're putting on the working class in a negative way by blaming
15:45them if they're in receipt of benefits. Now, if you look at people who work in a supermarket,
15:50for instance, supermarkets during the cost of living crisis that's happened over the
15:54last few years have benefited greatly. Their profits are completely through the roof, but
15:59their workers are having to depend on in-work benefits to survive. Now, if the workers in
16:04multi-billion pound companies are depending on benefits, it's actually the company itself
16:09that's receiving the benefit, not the people. They should be paid better wages rather than
16:13the exploitation wages they're paying. So I think when we look at praising the rich
16:19and attacking the working poor, there needs to be a great shift in policy to me. So when
16:26we look at what we should have, the people in the middle, we tend to try and look after
16:31ourselves, but let's ensure that children are fed and educated properly and let's ensure
16:35that our old people are looked after after a lifetime of work. And for me, for the Labour
16:40Party to go against those two core principles, it's just ridiculous.
16:44I mean, what some people might say is that people who have large families, it's their
16:48choice and as with anything else, you have to decide whether you can afford it before
16:52you make those decisions. Which I wouldn't disagree with that. I'm
16:56from a large family, I'm one of six kids. The difference is when me and my family was
17:01born in the late 70s and the 80s, the cost of living weren't like it is now. One wage
17:06could survive a family. Now, we have in this day and age, two parents having to go out
17:11to work full time to just provide the basics, to get food on the table. Can't afford an
17:17house, which I think you're looking at about eight times the annual salaries is the price
17:21of an house in these days. So unless there's a complete rebalance of
17:25the system, then people having children and having to look after their own children completely,
17:32is just not a viable thing. And people might disagree with that, but there was a saying
17:36when I was a kid was, it takes a community to raise a kid, not just a mum or a dad. We
17:40had nans, granddads, uncles, aunties, everybody chipping in. And that part of community's
17:46gone because politics has become so divisive where it just wants us to all hate each other.
17:51It wants me to blame my next door neighbour for issues, while multi-millionaire Keir Starmer
17:56lives rent free with his benefits, with his eating allowance paid, with his food allowance
18:01paid. But yeah, it's the girl next door who's got a couple of kids and needs some benefits
18:05to top it up. That's the problem. It's just ridiculous.
18:08You've mentioned, you've said the reform is saying a lot of the right things. You do rule
18:14out joining the reform or another party?
18:16Yeah, I just wouldn't join any other party, especially at the minute. I'm elected till
18:202027. We need some good policies within Dudley, but we need some funding from the government.
18:29We can't just keep expecting the Conservatives, who are to blame for mismanagement of funds
18:34locally, there's no doubt about that. The Conservative government previous are to blame
18:39for withdrawing all the money. But we can't just keep blaming them and blaming them. We
18:43need a Labour government, who are in charge now till 2029, to invest in people and to
18:49invest in the council. Now for me, there's no real winning joining a party. If I was
18:56to join reform, for instance, I'd be the only reform councillor in Dudley, so I'd still
19:00essentially act as an independent, but I'd have an office trying to tell me what I've
19:05got to do, what I've got to say, whereas now I can speak up for the working class in my
19:09own voice and how I want to say it.
19:13Do you have any regrets now? Would you have used your language differently now, if you
19:16could have done it again?
19:17No, not at all. If I could turn back time to last week when I sent that letter, I'd
19:20send exactly the same letter. I'd probably check the spelling and grammar on it a little
19:26bit more, but I'd send the same letter, because we need to hold the government to account,
19:30and Labour councillors and Labour MPs should be holding the government to account, because
19:34they're the only ones that can change the government mind. Now we saw all the issues
19:38with the Conservatives and four prime ministers in five years, or whatever it was they had.
19:43But to be fair, that was because their own party was holding them to account. They understood
19:46that their leader was no good. Now, yes, they elected more leaders that were no good, but
19:50at least they had the tenacity to try and go at them and say, actually, we need to change
19:55things here, whereas we're just dragging our feet with Keir Starmer, who's just attacking
19:59the working class.
20:00Who would you like to see replace Keir Starmer?
20:04And that is the massive issue, because if we look at the people around this table, there's
20:0812 mini Keir Starmers. To me, I believe the leader of the Labour Party should be somebody
20:14from the working class, somebody who's worked in factories, somebody who speaks with a normal
20:19accent. People like John Trickett and people from, you know, if we could go back 30 years,
20:23Dennis Skinner should be the leader of the Labour Party, you know what I mean? We want
20:27proper working class folk who understand our values and our communities, not somebody who's
20:32grew up in Knightsbridge and gone to Oxford telling folk...
20:35But Keir Starmer would say he's working class, wouldn't he?
20:37Well, he would do, yeah. If he was here, he'd tell you his dad was a toolmaker, and I probably
20:41wouldn't disagree with that statement, if I'm quite honest. But he ain't working class.
20:47There's nothing about him that's working class. His parents worked hard and fantastic for
20:51him, but unless you immerse yourself in our communities and you've grew up in our communities,
20:55then you've got no idea what working class is.
20:58Steve Edwards, thank you very much.
20:59Cheers, Martin.