A Lambeth councillor has dramatically quit the Labour Party, accusing it of fostering a “toxic culture of bullying” and “pandering to the far right.”
Martin Abrams, who has represented Streatham St Leonard’s since 2022, announced his resignation on social media on Thursday (August 28).
In a strongly worded statement, Cllr Abrams said he had been “shocked at how bad things have become” under Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership, just a year into Labour’s time in government.
He claimed the party was “rolling out the red carpet for Nigel Farage and Reform” while scapegoating migrants and vulnerable people. “Labour is now pandering to the far right, deliberately stirring up racial tensions caused not by migrants but by 45 years of failed neoliberalism,” he said.
Turning to foreign policy, Abrams accused the government of being “complicit in the ongoing Gaza genocide” by providing intelligence and support to Israel, while cracking down on protests at home. He condemned the “mass arrests of pensioners under the Terrorism Act” as “ridiculous and shameful.”
Abrams also said he was appalled by what he described as a culture of “bullying, racism, sexism, disablism and factionalism” that he claims has been allowed to fester under Starmer’s leadership.
The councillor, who is Jewish, was suspended by Lambeth Labour in February 2024 after he backed a motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. That suspension means he has been barred from standing again as a Labour candidate in the 2026 local elections.
Explaining his decision, Abrams said: “As an anti-Zionist Jewish person who was always taught to stand with the oppressed and never the oppressor, this vote was a matter of conscience for me and I am proud I took this stance.”
Despite his break with Labour, Abrams said he still has “huge amounts of energy, passion and ambition” for Streatham and promised to keep representing the community as an independent councillor.
Lambeth Labour has been contacted for comment. Photo by Reading Tom from Reading, UK, Wikimedia commons.