Mayoress stripped of title after she joins BNP

Robert Sutcliffe | Monday, 13 March 2006 Source: Yorkshire Post

THE Mayoress of Keighley has been stripped of her position after shocking colleagues by joining the British National Party.

Mayor Tony Wright said after former independent councillor Rose Thompson, 49, told him of her decision that he, "along with many parts of the Keighley community would find her affiliation offensive".

He also called on her to stand down from the position she has held since the formation of Keighley Town Council four years ago, but she has refused.

The timing of her decision has come at a politically sensitive time in Bradford. Voters will turn out on March 23 in Bradford Council's Keighley West ward to elect a district councillor to replace BNP councillor Angela Clarke who resigned recently.

Ms Thompson, a grandmother who says she has campaigned against poverty for 10 years, said: "It has been a very difficult decision but how can we keep allowing people in when our welfare system is collapsing. There should be a stop. We are only an island."

Coun Wright, who has known her since schooldays, said: "Many times during my Mayoral year she has been my 'Mayoress of the Occasion' and my first reaction was one of shock and disbelief but this has turned to a sense of sadness and betrayal.

"I believe she must stand down and offer herself to the electorate as a BNP candidate otherwise she has no electoral mandate and is effectively in contempt of the voters in her ward.

"I do not believe the BNP inclusively represent, or attempt to represent, all sections of our local community. The politics of division have no place in a civilised society."

Her sister Mary Lister, 50, of Keighley said: "We don't need the BNP here and I don't agree with what she has done. I asked her if she had gone off her head.

"I don't like anything like that and we don't want them in this town and I won't be voting for her."

Angela Clarke, who despite resigning as a district councillor is staying as a town councillor, is the only other BNP member of Keighley Town Council.