Wiltshire Councillor Mike Sankey, who recently resigned from the Conservative Group on Wiltshire Council, may now be expelled from the party after the Melksham and Devizes Conservative Association voted to expel him. He has questioned whether the decision was influenced by ‘class bias.’
Cllr Sankey stepped down from the council’s Conservative Group last month, citing his growing dissatisfaction with delays in local infrastructure projects, road safety issues, and what he described as the council’s mishandling of an Afghan refugee couple’s eviction. However, he highlighted mounting frustration over the council’s approach to public notice policies as the final straw leading to his resignation.
Though Cllr Sankey planned to continue as an ungrouped Conservative councillor, he was informed via email by the chairman of the Melksham and Devizes Conservative Association that the group’s management had voted to expel him. Cllr Sankey pointed out that the email stated his expulsion was decided in a management meeting on 17th October; however, he was asked to return his campaign literature on 10th October, suggesting that the outcome of the meeting was predetermined.
The decision regarding his expulsion will be reviewed by Conservative Party HQ to determine if it will be ratified.
Cllr Sankey has asked why he faced expulsion while a fellow former Conservative Group councillor, Edward Kirk, who resigned from the group earlier this year, has not been subjected to the same treatment and has not been expelled.
Cllr Sankey questioned whether his expulsion might have been influenced by perceived class biases, referencing a comment allegedly made by a senior member of the Melksham and Devizes Conservative Association, who, Cllr Sankey claims, stated that “other members didn’t want someone like me” within the party.
“Why have I been treated less favourably than Edward Kirk?” Cllr Sankey asked in an email to the chair. “Is it a class thing? (It would certainly explain the occasions when senior figures have sneered and looked down their noses at me),” he said. “I had hoped, as a working-class bloke, to stand again on behalf of the party.”
Melksham News contacted the Melksham and Devizes Conservative Association but has yet to receive a reply.
