Northumberland County Council is set to hold an election on 1 May which will likely decide whether the Conservatives get another four years in County Hall in Morpeth or whether Labour will retake the council after eight years in opposition.
Not everyone is happy, however, with the binary choice between Labour and Conservative with one council candidate for the Rothbury ward, Karen Weech, hitting out at political parties and accusing them of not serving local people.
Who is Karen Weech?
Born in Zambia, Karen Weech is the commercial director of an electronics engineering business in Northumberland which has sold a camera to NASA that is currently on the International Space Station. A former longtime member of the Labour Party and floating voter, Karen left Labour three years ago due to the direction it took under Keir Starmer’s leadership. She is a community-minded person who was recently invited to join the Rothbury Traditional Music Festival and is looking for opportunities to get involved and support the local community in Rothbury ongoingly.
The problem with political parties
When it comes to local support and local government, Karen Weech doesn’t feel that traditional political parties serve local people. She feels that no matter which way you vote, those elected never truly represent you as representatives of the big parties are governed by party lines and party whips. “The challenge we face is traditional party politics doesn’t serve local people.” She stresses the relevance of people knowing that with the warning that “just because you’re voting for a particular party, doesn’t mean they’re going to support you locally and represent your true needs and requirements because they’re governed under national policies”.
Karen is standing under a Majority banner, Majority itself being an alliance of left-wing politicians and activists seeking to support progressive candidates for election who subscribe to the NOLAN Principles; the Seven Principles of Public Life which are selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. These candidates can be independent or a member of a progressive party, Green Party members were present at their launch, who adhere to the Seven Principles. There are no whips in the Majority alliance Karen is standing for, giving her “total freedom” to support the constituents of Rothbury as she sees fit.
Find an alternative and fight
With many people across both Northumberland and the UK growing ever disillusioned with politics, the last general election having the lowest turnout in 23 years, Karen Weech doesn’t blame the voters; citing their observation of successive governments not impacting them in a positive way at all. She mentions the lack of distinction between the main political parties and Labour’s continuation of the Conservative-introduced two-child benefit cap as well as cuts to disability benefits.
Her real worry, however, is that former Labour voters feel that they have no home to go to, and that some are now leaning towards Reform UK. Karen argues that people still need to get involved with the political system, find independents, organisations or movements like Majority to make a home with as “complacency and doing nothing is not the answer”. She argues fighting for an alternative and another way of doing things that doesn’t involve mainstream political parties. The local elections of May 2025 are the first in Northumberland to feature Majority candidates, with Jamie Driscoll’s bid for the North East Mayoralty happening before Majority’s inception. Karen Weech will be the first of such candidates ever to stand in the rural Rothbury ward. The local elections will serve to answer two questions. Firstly, whether or not people agree with Karen’s position that political parties don’t represent the people their candidates are elected to serve and secondly, whether or not there is a strong appetite for Majority amongst the voting public.
