A LABOUR politician who stood in the last two General Elections in Somerton and Frome has quit the party after he was overlooked to contest the seat in the by election on Thursday, July 20.

Sean Dromgoole was Labour's campaign director in 2015 and went on to double the party's vote when he stood in 2017.

He was miffed at not being considered for the upcoming by election sparked by the recent resignation of Conservative MP David Warburton.

Announcing his resignation from Labour, Mr Dromgoole said: "It is with great sadness that I announce that, after 12 years of membership, I have today resigned from the Labour Party.

"I simply don’t understand how, and have received no explanation as to why, I wasn’t even shortlisted for a selection in the seat of Somerton and Frome in which I have worked so hard for so long.

"I was campaign director here in the 2015 and had the privilege of standing in the last two General Elections.

"I got 10,998 votes in 2017 (an increase of 6,579) and only fell back by 4 per cent in the difficult 2019 campaign.

"I have since been chair of the CLP as well as performing many other regional party duties.

"Despite this long record of loyal voluntary work and successful campaigning, the party has completely failed to communicate at all with me since the decision to exclude me.

"I have no understanding of either the process or the rationale.

"If, for instance, the choice had been to select a female candidate, that would have made sense.

"As it is I may never know the basis of the decision, or on what knowledge, or errors, it was based.

"All I do know is that it was a poor one that no-one cares to explain.

"The Labour Party I loved seems to have become paralysed by a one-way relationship with its leadership.

"It has wholly disengaged from local CLPs and the sentiments of those who do the work.

"Non-responsive apparatchiks scurry about guessing at what the leadership wants.

"As they do so, they encourage friends to turn traitor, loyalists to become loathers, and local hard work to be fluff to laugh at in Blackfriars Road.

"It has become a party so busy looking over its own shoulder, that it is scared of saying or doing anything.

"It cannot be considered fit for Government when its internal processes are such a shabby combination of hiding from responsibility and diktat.

"I hope it changes. Lord knows we need a change from the current administration.

"Perhaps my resignation may prompt some improvement, but my treatment has been so woefully poor that there does come a point at which any rational soul has to say enough is enough. I have sadly reached that point."

*The candidates standing in the by election are: Lorna Corke (Christian Peoples Alliance); Martin Dimery (Green); Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat); Bruce Evans (Reform UK); Neil Guild (Labour); Rosie Mitchell (Independent); Faye Purbrick (Conservative); and Peter Richardson (UK Independence Party).