A FORMER Labour councillor who is running for office in next year’s elections posted on Facebook that an early general election and Labour win is her “worst case scenario.”

Anne Pissaridou is standing in the 2019 council elections for North Portslade ward and also chairs the Hove and Portslade Constituency Labour Party (CLP).

She left a comment in the closed group Hove and Portslade Labour CLP Forum last week which said: “For me the worst case scenario is an early General Election under current selection rules. Labour win. Hard right get their people elected.

“Then and only then they resign the Labour whip (or even LP) and form a block in Parliament that literally holds the LP to ransom.”

Speaking to The Argus, an anonymous member of the Labour Party said that Anne’s “hard right” refers to the likes of Peter Kyle, MP for Hove and Portslade, and other MPs who are not part of Momentum.

He said: “This is a disgraceful and deluded thing to say and is a thinly veiled attack on Peter Kyle.

“To call anyone in the Labour Party “hard right” is insulting and outrageous.

“How does she think residents will vote for the Labour Party locally when people like her are apparently in leading positions?”

Regarding her comment about resigning the whip and forming a bloc in Parliament, the Labour Party member told The Argus “she is referring to a ‘conspiracy theory-type suggestion’ that Labour MPs might resign the whip after an election and become independent MPs.”

The “current selection rules” Ms Pissaridou is referring to is the trigger ballot system, which Labour campaign group Momentum have now successfully backed to change, making it easier to deselect sitting MPs.

Another anonymous member of the Labour Party said: “Local members know that Peter Kyle won the backing of Hove last year and is a great constituency MP. So if she is referring to him as someone to be rid of, she’s showing terrible judgment.”

Mrs Pissaridou told The Argus that she is “absolutely committed to working for a Labour victory in the next general election both locally and nationally, whether it comes next month or in 2022”.

She added: “I look forward with confidence to Jeremy Corbyn being a great socialist Prime Minister, and to a united and enthusiastic Labour Party winning a majority on Brighton and Hove Council in May 2019.”

Jon Rogers, chairman of the Brighton Pavilion CLP, said: “Social media is wonderful at giving abbreviated expressions of opinion. Anne’s in favour of electing as many Labour MPs as possible.”