Leading Lib Dem quits to stand as Green candidate - Alexis Rowell felt 'betrayed by coalition policies'

Writer and campaigner Alexis Rowell wrote to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to say he felt “betrayed” by the coalition government’s policies, which he claimed were damaging the “social fabric” of the country and were not doing enough to address the perils of climate change.

 

The final straw, he said, was Energy Minister Chris Huhne’s support for nuclear power. 
 

Green MP Caroline Lucas immediately urged other disillusioned Lib Dems to copy his switch, adding: “Alexis’s move from the Lib Dems to the Greens shows that it is the Greens who are leading the way on progressive and environmental politics. 
 

“I encourage all Lib Dems to take a long hard look at what the coalition is doing and to ask themselves whether they really support what’s happening.”
 

Locally, Lib Dems say they were “not surprised” by Mr Rowell’s change of rosette and pointed out that he had flitted from Labour to the Lib Dems in the past.
 

In his resignation letter, Mr Rowell said he hoped Mr Clegg would one day “find his voice” in the coalition government. 
 

“I recognise that any government would have had to make difficult decisions,” he wrote, “but I’m still shocked by the fact that you signed the foreword to the bill to privatise the NHS, by the draconian frontloaded cuts to local government, by the free schools policy, by the virtual abandonment of state-funded higher education, by the lack of any action on banker bonuses and exorbitant pay in general, by the decision to fully privatise the Royal Mail and by a host of other free market or libertarian policies which I didn’t vote for and which I can’t support.” 
 

A day after quitting, he was chosen at a selection meeting to stand for the Greens in next month’s poll. The speed of that turnaround has been mocked as opportunism by opponents, with sceptics asking whether he would have made the change if the potential opportunity to win a place on the council had not arisen.
 

While Mr Rowell was never appointed to the Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition cabinet which ran the council for four years between 2006 and 2010, he did hold the special project post of “eco- champion” and won a national prize as Sustainability Councillor of the Year in 2007. 
 

He went on to be a consultant for other local authorities wishing to be greener and to reduce carbon emissions.
 

But his nagging belief that environmental issues should take precedence in all council policies due to his fears over the global emergency of climate change led him into disagreements with his group’s leadership and those in charge of the money at the Town Hall.
 

He told Lib Dems in private meetings that they had not been radical enough after removing Labour from power for the first time in more than three decades but attempts to wrest control of the group ended in failure.
 

He will no doubt point to the changing fortunes of the Lib Dems in his old ward of Belsize as evidence of his drive. In 2006, he was in the team that turned a safe Conservative ward yellow as the Lib Dems won three seats. Without him at the centre of the campaign in 2010, the Tories came back and won two of the three places on the council. Rivals suggested he will find it harder to replicate that success in a party with fewer resources and manpower across London.
 

The battle for Highgate ward is not straightforward. Labour will try to defend the seat left vacant by the resignation of Michael Nicolaides last week. But the constituency is already split between Labour and the Greens, and it is the area in Camden where the Greens have performed well in recent years, even if a contingent of three councillors has been reduced to just one. 
 

Sally Gimson – who has stood for both the council and Parliament in the past – won an internal vote to stand as the Labour candidate on Tuesday. In her pitch to members, she identified the Greens as the biggest threat.
 

“I have a lot of experience campaigning in difficult circumstances,” she said. “Obviously, the biggest threat to Labour success in Highgate is the Greens. But I believe with a strong local candidate we have a good story to tell about Labour values and opposition to Conservative policies, as a party which can really effect coherent change, not a just a party of protest.”
 

The Conservatives, who won a seat in Highgate in 2006, have chosen software engineer Tony Denyer to fight the election.
 

The Liberal Democrats have yet to announce who will stand in the September 15 by-election. Group leader Councillor Keith Moffitt said: “To Alexis Rowell’s former colleagues in Labour and the Lib Dems, this news will sadly come as no surprise. Alexis started his political journey in the Labour Party, and never found it easy working with parties making difficult decisions, whether locally or nationally.”