It looks like some Labour officials haven’t got the memo about keeping their shadow ministers away from disgraced Rotherham councillors implicated in the mismanagement of the child sexual abuse scandal. Shadow defence secretary John Healey and Rother Valley Labour parliamentary candidate Jake Richards went out leafletting on Sunday with councillor Sue Ellis. Ellis is reportedly standing down “voluntarily” over her presence on the council during the scandal and at the notorious 2005 meeting in which details of abuse were supplied and ignored by the council. She’s already stood down from the Parish Council. Labour HQ has been purging the councillors in waves as it looks ahead to the local elections, though it seems as though they’re still happy to send out shadow ministers to canvas with them. Locals might not be too pleased to see them at their door…

Rotherham Tory leader Simon Ball gets in touch with Guido:

“Survivors I speak to are sick of seeing John Healey smiling next to these same councillors who everyone knows stayed silent while they were raped and abused. While Starmer is busy deselecting those councillors who are not retiring into the sunset, his Shadow Defence Secretary is out campaigning with them. I know they are short of volunteers in Rotherham Labour – but this is desperate“.

Not a good look for a changed party…

Guido is happy to announce the end of the slow and acrimonious death of disgraced former candidate Dominic Beck’s political career. Beck was selected for Labour in Rother Valley in 2022 despite his presence on the council during the Rotherham child exploitation scandal. He was quickly forced to step down following a massive backlash while staying on as a councillor. Local residents called it a “betrayal” of the victims…

The Starmer-purge turned its eye to Rotherham last month and deselected up to 4 disgraced councillors, including Beck. Now he’s finally resigned his cabinet post, citing “a number of changes to my personal circumstances”. Guido hears no one wanted to take on Beck’s transport brief so council leader Chris Read has had to take it on himself. Beck will presumably stay on as councillor until he isn’t asked to stand again at the local elections. The implosion over at Rotherham continues…