Five Respect councillors quit

All five of the Respect councillors in Bradford Council have resigned from the Party. Two of them had already been suspended after criticising the announcement by the Bradford West MP George Galloway that he would be standing for Mayor of London.

Respect still have a couple of councillors in Tower Hamlets. I'm not aware the party have any elsewhere. They have none in Birmingham or Newham where they had representation in the past.

Earlier one of the councillors Cllr Ishtiaq Ahmed had been suspended after saying:

"People are always asking me: where's George? This weekend I had more than 20 calls from constituents asking me why George is talking about London and not Bradford. As councillors we have only had one strategic meeting with him in the past year... I'm always reading on his Twitter feed about his appearances in Westminster, his Edinburgh Fringe show, his tour in Scotland – it sometimes feels as though he goes everywhere but Bradford."

I suppose that Respect may gain a few defections from Labour if Mr Galloway gains a high profile for opposing military action over Syria. However his Party - with two councillors out of over 20,000 - looks very much like a one man band. It seems to be more of a fan club than a political party - and one where no criticism of the Supreme Leader can be tolerated.