THE latest recruit to Thurrock Council's Conservative group ranks, Cllr Abbie Akinbohun, took to social media today (Sunday, 9 February) with a number of messages defending her decision to defect from the Labour party.

Cllr Akinbohun has not responded to a number of requests from the media for a comment, including Thurrock NubNews, since her decision to quit Labour and join the Conservatives announced last month.

Her defection came in the wake of a series of posts when she slammed the Conservative Group, but Thurrock NubNews understands matters came to a head at a Labour Group 'away day' when she made a number of comments about immigrants and race relations in the borough.

Complaints were made against her by Labour members and the Labour group moved to suspend her, but before that could be actioned, she quit and joined the Conservatives.

Today she posted: "For clarification purposes, I left Labour of my own will, I wasn't suspended by the party, that's defamation of character."

Another post said: "They called me, I refused to pick up, I was sent a message, I didn't reply because I have made up my mind."

Cllr Akinbohun is no stranger to using social media to get her message across, in the build up to the recent general election she posted: "You can't trust the Tories."