Alice Mahon - Resignation From The Labour Party

Resignation From The Labour Party

Mahon resigned her membership of the Labour party in April 2009 saying she can no longer condone how it operates.

In her letter to the Halifax Constituency Labour Party she criticised the Prime Minister: "This Labour Government should hang its head in shame for inflicting on the British public just as we face the most severe recession any of us have experienced in a lifetime." The Bill has been criticised by a number of disability campaign groups and Labour MPs for not helping the disabled or unemployed. Mahon said that she "totally disapproved of everything Tony Blair was doing" and was dismayed at the impotency shown by the government in tackling energy providers and financial institutions. She condemned the failure of the party to stick to its election manifesto, including pledges not to privatise the Royal Mail, and to give the country a referendum on the EU Constitution (which later became the Lisbon Treaty).

The Damian McBride smear revelations left her "sickened" according to the Yorkshire Post:

"My stepdaughter Rachel said to me: ‘How could they do that to people like David Cameron and his wife Samantha when they had recently lost their son Ivan? What kind of people think it would be a good idea to smear them?' I was sickened by that – that is not the Labour Party that I joined all those years ago… Quite simply I have had it with New Labour."

Mahon continues to be active in left-wing politics, particularly through the Stop the War Coalition and CND. She is a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society. The No2EU campaign reports she has decided to support them in the June 2009 European Parliament election.