Former Labour councillor Tony Bunday, who joined the Lib Dems earlier this year, has announced he’s been selected to stand in the Bitterne Park ward at next May’s city council elections – likely pitting him against his former Labour teammate and incumbent Cllr Phil Webb.
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Bunday became Bitterne Park’s first Labour councillor in 2022, and was re-elected the following year alongside Labour's Amanda Barnes-Andrews and Phil Webb.
He was later stripped of his party membership and sat as an independent until his term ended in May 2024. Since then he’s not been a city councillor.
In February he announced he’d joined the Lib Dems, saying he’d read the Liberal Democrat’s 2024 election manifesto “and realised that I agreed with every part [of] it.”
At the time Bunday said he had no idea if he’d stand in the ward for the Lib Dems, but he’s now announced on Linked In that he will.
“Really proud to have been selected to be the Liberal Democrat Candidate for [Bitterne] Park in next May's Southampton City Council elections,” he said. “It was fantastic to win here before in 2022 and 2023 and I will be working very hard to make it a hat-trick. I will be [immensely] proud if I get to represent my home ward for a third time and to deliver for the ward again.”
Current ward councillor Phil Webb has said he also hopes to stand again next May for Labour, though it’s understood his candidacy has yet to be confirmed by the party.
Listen to our interview with Cllr Phil Webb on our digest+ channel
Conservative David Fuller, who was a BP ward councillor for eight years until 2023, is also expected to stand. Fuller narrowly missed out on regaining a seat in 2024, losing to Labour’s Gordon Cooper in 2024 by just 89 votes.
Bunday is not alone in changing party allegiance recently: his son Matt, who represents Swaythling and is standing in Portswood ward next May, defected to the Lib Dems in June, followed soon after by Coxford’s Cllr Rebecca McCreanor.
And also representing Coxford, Matthew Renyard switched from Labour to the Green Party in March.
Commenting on the recent defections, former Conservative councillor David Fuller said: “I think the chopping and changing of political parties by a growing number of Labour councillors in this city is perhaps a bit of a damning indictment on the national party and perhaps then locally.
“But it’s nice to see that people still want to stand up and represent local communities.”
Despite these defections, Labour still holds a strong majority on the council, with 32 out of 51 seats. Whether they’ll hold on to their majority next May is another question, given both the national and local picture.
Why do people put themselves forward to be councillors? Listen to our interview with Bitterne Park ward councillor Phil Webb on our digest+ channel