Labour leader trashes ex-Labour Councillor

Jane Dyer, an sitting Councillor, has ditched Basildon Labour and re-badged herself as an Independent. Labour leader, Nigel Smith, has reacted with uncharacteristic bile and labelled her a 'dead loss', amongst other things. His point appears to be that Cllr. Dyer was not as active at the Council as he would have liked. Well, I must admit that I haven't had much to do with her over the four years of her term, but my experience is that Councillors can often be valuable community representatives without a great deal of speechmaking. I suspect that Nigel's irritation is less that she didn't pull her weight and more that she has baled on the increasingly riven local Labour party. This year's local elections have already seen a well-respected Labour Councillor deselected and spun off to an unwinnable seat. Now they have managed to lose a Councillor altogether. One wonders what is going on?