Rochdale councillor leaves fourth party citing Tory sleaze

A Conservative councillor, who has previously represented the Brexit Party, Liberal Democrats and Labour, has left the party over "Tory sleaze".

Kathleen Nickson, who represents Balderstone and Kirkholt on Rochdale Council, joined the Tories in 2020.

She said she had left the party after the recent lobbying row and "couldn't care less about being criticised".

Ms Nickson has been strongly criticised by ex-Labour colleagues in the past.

She has also been mocked in the press for her many political moves and was named "Turncoat of the Year" in satirical magazine Private Eye in 2020.

Declining to make any further comment, she said she had "resigned as a result of Tory sleaze at parliamentary level and I couldn't care less about being criticised".

It will be the third time she had represented her ward as an independent, having previously been without allegiance on either side of her short stint with the The Brexit Party in 2019.

She first joined the council with Labour in May 2014, before moving to the Liberal Democrats in January 2019 after claiming she was being "blocked from doing her job".

She announced she would be joining the Brexit Party six months later, but later claimed she did not go through with the move and instead became an independent.

However, she was briefly listed as belonging to the party on the council's website in summer 2019.

She joined the Conservatives in May 2020.

Rochdale's Conservative group leader Ashley Dearnley said he could only "wish her well" following her decision.