Ex-Mansfield mayor ‘sacked’ from Welsh government job - hours after being revealed as Brexit Party candidate

Kate Allsop, the former Mansfield Independent Forum mayor, lost to Labour’s Andy Abrahams by just two votes in May’s election.

Now, she has been sacked by the Welsh government, just hours after she was announced as the Brexit Party candidate for Mansfield.

She was hired to be a specialist advisor to a troubled Welsh council in Merthyr Tydfil after it appealed to the Welsh government for help. 

She started on July 17, but on Friday (August 2), Ms Allsop was named as the Brexit Party candidate for the next general election.

The next day, she claims she was “sacked” and said “the ethos of Brexit is not in keeping with the ethos of the Welsh government”.

But the Labour-led Welsh government said Ms Allsop “stepped down from her role”, and added it would have been “inappropriate for her to continue” offering independent advice to its council.

The former mayor said: “They took me on because of my experience of being an independent mayor in Mansfield. That hasn’t changed. I was doing a good job, and that hasn’t changed.

“The leader of Merthyr Tydfil is gutted that I’ve been sacked and so are many of the councillors and officers I had been working with.

“It was completely political. It’s very unfair, very short-sighted, and probably why the Welsh government is in the mess it’s in.

“I’m very sad because Merthyr Tydfil is a lovely place, with lovely people, but it needs help.

“It needs support, and it’s so wrong to be politically ostracised just for standing up for democracy.”

Asked whether she regretted the timing of the announcement of her candidacy, Ms Allsop said: “Absolutely not, I’m proud of being chosen [for the Brexit Party]. 

“It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster but I’m really proud, and I’m not going to be politically bullied just because a party doesn’t like the result of the vote in 2016.”

Asked what she plans to do now, she said: “I’m going to get out there, and I’m going to go and win an election.”

The Welsh government’s Minister for Housing and Local Government, Labour’s Julie James, said: “I am grateful for the work that Kate had already undertaken as part of our support package with the council. 

“However, as she has declared her intention to stand as an MP it would be inappropriate for her to continue in her role as independent adviser.”