A Wigan Labour candidate quits claiming her "face doesn’t fit" – but the party doesn’t agree
A leading Labour member in Wigan has quit the party saying she is ‘fed up’ with their direction and that “her face dosesn’t fit.”
Rachel Heydon was, until her resignation last week, the prospective Labour candidate for the Douglas ward in the upcoming May elections and a member of both the party’s women’s forum and executive committee in the town.
She said she had put herself forward to be a candidate in last October’s Wigan Central by-election, but claims she was rejected by Labour because “her face didn’t fit.”
But Wigan Labour Party has denied this, saying once a prospective candidate is selected for a ward, in Ms Heydon’s case Douglas, they are removed from the panel of potential candidates and cannot be considered for selection in another seat.
A Labour spokesman said they were “disappointed” by her resignation and her claim that she “had the wrong face for the party,” given that it had backed her for the seat.
They said she had been actively campaigning for Labour up until last week and had represented Wigan’s women’s forum at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.
During a seven-minute statement, Ms Heydon said: “I feel that the people of Wigan deserve better, not better than me, better than the Labour Party. “Why? Because the party have abandoned the working man. They’ve abandoned the truth.
“They’ve abandoned everyone they’re supposed to represent.
“When you look across Wigan at the candidates that they’re putting forward, do you really want to vote for them?”
In October, Labour lost a Wigan central seat to Reform. Ms Heydon added: “Others in that chamber will get voted out by an Independent or by Reform.
”It doesn’t matter who it is.
“Yes, for the last 50, 60, 70, years, if you stuck a red rosette on a pig, people would vote for it.
“I am telling you now that if you stick a red rosette on anything, nobody will vote for it anymore.”
Ms Heydon said she would be now support Independent councillor Pat Draper, who represents the Douglas ward.
Coun Draper also quit the controlling Labour group last year, saying the party had "left the working class behind with lies and broken promises.”
A Douglas ward Labour spokesman said: “We are disappointed by Rachel Heydon’s decision to resign from the Labour Party and subsequently publish misleading claims on social media regarding the selection process for the Wigan Central by-election.
“Rachel has stated that she put her name forward to stand in Wigan Central. “However, she does not acknowledge that she was ineligible to do so, having already been formally selected as the Labour candidate for her own ward in July and was actively campaigning there.
“Once a prospective candidate is selected, they are removed from the panel of potential candidates and cannot be considered for selection in another seat. “We are also unclear about her claim that she ‘had the wrong face for the party’ given that she was an endorsed Labour prospective candidate for Douglas Ward and received the full support of the local party for over six months, including active campaigning until last week.
“Additionally, we are surprised by her recent public expressions of support for Coun Pat Draper and other independent councillors, whom she had previously criticised for their voting record on homelessness.”