Tunbridge Wells has a new political group after two members joined forces.

The borough’s latest political grouping – the Independents for Tunbridge Wells – contains just two members, Cllr Ray Moon and Cllr David Hayward.

Cllr Moon is a dyed-in-the-wool socialist, a member of the Labour Party for more than 40 years, while Cllr Hayward was previously the leader of the Tunbridge Wells Alliance. He quit the party in August.

Both feel they have been forced into their current position by the actions of their parties and insist they are trying to find a way to best represent their electors.

Cllr Moon was suspended by the Labour Party earlier this year following his sponsorship of a screening of a film about Jeremy Corbyn at The Forum in Tunbridge Wells.

The screening raised £200 for the mental health charity Mind.

The film Jeremy Corbyn: The Big Lie is a defence of the Labour Party’s former leader, who has himself since been ousted from the party.

Cllr Moon said: “I have not quit the Labour Party – at the moment I am still a member – but I have been suspended and barred from all meetings of the local Labour Group.”

He claimed: “Anyone in the Labour Party who may have a left-leaning voice against Keir Starmer is currently the subject of a witch-hunt right across the country.

“There have even been examples this week of delegates to the Labour Party conference being suspended ahead of the event.

“I have always spoken out when necessary, but they are trying to suppress discussion.”

Several prominent members of the Maidstone Labour Group, including two sitting councillors, have also been forced to leave after being given indefinite suspensions.

Cllr Moon insists that he has not joined any other party, nor signed up to any agreement with Cllr Haywood, but said aligning with the Independents for Tunbridge Wells Group was the best way to continue to represent his electors in Paddock Wood.

He said: “When I lost the Labour whip, I lost my seat on all the council’s committees. By going in with Cllr Hayward I have at least been able to get a seat on the planning committee, where I can continue to represent the people of Paddock Wood.”

He said it was possible to work together for the benefit of residents. He said: “There are many issues – car parks, public toilets etc – that are not political, where councillors of any party can work together.”

Cllr Hayward agreed. He said: “Until I joined the Tunbridge Wells Alliance, I had never been a member of any political party. I wouldn’t regard myself as either socialist or Conservative. I don't think that sort of Westminster politics should have any role in local government.

“The trouble with party politics is that sometimes people vote against a good idea, just because it wasn't their side that came up with it.”

Cllr Moon has appealed against his suspension and is hoping for reinstatement.

He said the fact that he has joined with Cllr Hayward should not be an issue: “After all,” he said, “the Tunbridge Wells Labour Party entered into a coalition with the Lib Dems, with the Tunbridge Wells Alliance and an Independent to run the council.”

It was that very coalition formed to snatch power away from the Conservatives that caused Cllr Hayward to quit his party.

Ironically, he helped forge the Borough Partnership when he was leader of the Tunbridge Wells Alliance, after the May elections of 2022 – a move he later came to regret.

He said: “We ended up formally shackled and subservient to the Lib Dems [the largest party in the coalition].”

“It ran contrary to my beliefs and to the principles on which I was elected.

“The Partnership was a mistake – the Tunbridge Wells Alliance has just been swallowed up by the Lib Dems.”

Cllr Hayward, who was first elected to represent Pembury in May 2019, said: “I think there is growing desire for genuinely Independent candidates and that is what the Independents for Tunbridge Wells grouping provides.”

The Borough Partnership was formed following the May 2022 elections, when the Conservatives lost control for the first time in 20 years. It was renewed after this year’s elections.

The coalition did not seem to do any harm to its members at the polls – last May the Lib Dems, the Tunbridge Wells Alliance and Labour all increased their number of seats at the expense of the Conservatives and Independents.

But in the council’s eight-man cabinet, Labour and the Tunbridge Wells Alliance have two seats each, while the Lib Dems have kept four for themselves, which with the council leader’s casting vote gives them the majority on any issue.

The Tunbridge Wells Alliance’s group leader, Cllr Matthew Sankey, is not a member of the cabinet – a situation that Cllr Hayward described as “frankly bizarre”.

Cllr Hayward said: “I was just not willing to be a handcuffed passenger on the Lib Dem bus.”

He has now registered the Independents for Tunbridge Wells with the Electoral Commission as a political party.

He said: “I shall be standing again at the next election and I’m hoping that my group will have candidates in every ward.”

In a change to the current system of voting for the council one third at a time, next May’s elections will see the whole council up for election at the same time.

The number of councillors will also be reduced from the present 48 to 39.

Cllr Nicholas Pope is chairman of the Tunbridge Wells Alliance.

He said: “I disagree with Cllr Hayward about the Borough Partnership. The Lib Dems are the largest group and may have the final say, but they have to listen to what we say and they are forced to work things through in far more detail than they would if we weren’t there.

“The general feeling is that the Tunbridge Wells Alliance is better off inside the administration than out.”