A FORMER Mayor of Wexford and currently sitting Borough Councillor has resigned from the Labour Party, saying that it had “lost sight of the principles on which it was founded.”

Cllr. David Hynes contacted The Echo to say that he had sent a letter to Eamon Gilmore, informing him that he was resigning from the Labour Party. He will remain a sitting councillor in the Borough Council, acting now as an Independent. He is the fourth Labour councillor nationwide to have resigned from his party, which has also seen the resignation of four TDs since the formation of the government almost two years ago. Cllr. Hynes had been disillusioned by the direction the party was taking for quite some time, he said, adding that last month’s Budget had been “the final straw”.

Labour, he said, should never have gone into government with Fine Gael in the first place. In his letter of resignation he wrote: “I had some doubts about our participation in this government. While the party’s hierarchy told us that our participation in this government was essential, I don’t believe so.”

Cllr. Hynes has been a member of the Labour Party since 1999 and before that was a member of Democratic Left since 1991. He has been a member of the Borough Council since 1997.

The former Mayor said: “I have had people say to me that they won’t vote for Labour again. The party was founded on the principal of looking after those who are least able to look after themselves, under the guidance of men like Larkin and Connolly. The party either has those core values in mind or they don’t, and I believe the party does not.”