• ALTHOUGH a committed Labour voter, I’ve never been a hard left supporter.

Yet I consider the party’s current disgraceful purge of any Camden councillor who chooses to fight for the rights of constituents rather than toe the party line, a more egregious and shameful act than anything ever proposed by Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters.

I was greatly distressed to hear that Leo Cassarani is the latest councillor deemed by party apparatchiks to be a “lefty” and therefore barred from standing next May.

Leo has been an enormous support to us at The Combined Residents’ Associations of South Hampstead, dedicating himself to the numerous problems and concerns of residents.

If being fair-minded, honourable, and hardworking and voicing the concerns of constituents is deemed to be less important than the Labour Party itself then clearly the “powers that be” misunderstand why they were elected.

Residents are grateful to councillors such as Leo for speaking out against reviled developments like Landsec’s proposed blight of the O2 Centre site or Deliveroo’s deliberate and mendacious actions repeatedly to ignore the safety and wellbeing of Swiss Cottage people.

Until Labour sees the value of people like Leo, and allows a dissenting voice from time to time, I will not be voting Labour again. The party is diminished and its reputation disgraced by Leo’s shameful and forced departure.

PETER SYMONDS
CRASH