On the day of Medway Council’s budget meeting, Cllr Elizabeth Turpin suddenly resigned as Deputy Leader of the Conservative Group. What led to this out of the blue decision? What were her reasons? How does she feel about the party now? There was only one way to find out: a catch-up over coffee.
To begin, it seemed polite just to ask how she was given the whirlwind of attention, which saw news stories, plenty of social media attention, and an appearance on the Kent Politics Podcast. Elizabeth laughed and confirmed that she was “good”.
Politics nerds like us inevitably wondered whether she’d also resigned from the national Conservative Party. She confirmed that while she hasn’t formally written to the national party, she hasn’t renewed her membership either. Why go this far, though? It’s one thing to step down as deputy leader, but why leave the party?
“Being an independent within the council but not leaving the party, I believe, isn’t allowed. I had asked in the past. You have to be in the group. It wasn’t just local issues, some of it was national as well. I don’t think we have addressed adult social care.”
Seeing the challenges of adult social care on a personal level was a big issue. Whilst she wasn’t personally a fan of Boris Johnson, she believed he was doing something about it when he was Prime Minister, and when he was ousted, that work seemed to go with him. This led to a concern that many vulnerable adults are being failed locally.
Her personal experiences with her son, struggling to get the needed help, at a time when Ofsted, having previously rated children’s services in Medway ‘inadequate’, changed the rating to ‘good’, added further fuel.
“I was surprised by that good result because I was thinking, ‘Well my experience is not good. Does that mean everyone's experience is the same as mine? We can't have turned this around.’ I was pleasantly surprised that we got ‘good’, but for disabled children, Ofsted said that still requires improvement. Maybe it's just my experience of that bit of it is true, and not for everyone.”
As a private landlord, she was also dealing with issues on a personal level. She describes government plans to strengthen the rights of private tenants as “using a sledgehammer to crack a nut,” not addressing the issues properly, and going about things the wrong way.
She had also had issues with party comms, raising her concerns over a tweet that is still available online that she felt was totally inappropriate.
“There were other tweets that they put out which I didn’t bother writing to the party chairman about because I wasn’t receiving a response and I’m representing the Conservative Party as a councillor. As a representative of my residents, I wasn’t getting an acknowledgement. I know it’s not the government, but we are the party in government.”
Was Elizabeth’s decision a case that it wasn’t her that left the party, but that the Conservative Party left her? Upon consideration, she agrees, not knowing if she will become a member again. Maybe in time, but there is clear uncertainty in her voice. What is clear is that she feels that the party no longer represents her at this moment. There are just too many things she could not agree with, and the party has lost its way. “It’s not conservatism as I know it.”
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