A GROUP of Salisbury City councillors are calling for the resignation of the deputy leader saying she has made a mockery of the electoral system by switching political parties just weeks after the elections.

Former leader Jo Broom has cut her ties with the Liberal Democrat party and joined the Conservatives following a disagreement over who should be leader of the council. In the elections the LibDems, who lost eight seats, were left with four alongside six Labour councillors, ten Conservatives, two Independents and one Green Party councillor.

Among the 23 councillors, 15 are new. In a letter sent to the Journal, all six Labour councillors call for cllr Broom’s resignation in the interests of “true democracy” and the “future harmony” of the council and say she should stand in the subsequent by-election under her new flag.

They said: “Considering the election was such a short time ago, it is shocking that cllr Broom believes that after standing, campaigning and being elected as a Liberal Democrat she has the right to ignore the wishes of the residents of her ward, who did not elect a Conservative, potentially discouraging voting in the future.”

The fallout comes after the Conservative group asked cllr Broom, who was council leader last year, to resume her role to ensure “continuity” for the council which was mainly composed of new councillors.

Cllr Derek Brown denied it was in any way an offer of coalition saying: “As far as we are concerned there shouldn’t be any party politics at the parish level. Councillors should be working for the very best of their constituents.

“We thought supporting Jo as the leader at this time was the right thing to do. There was nobody else really left to do it – Andrew Roberts, who has now been elected leader, works, as do I. “However, when Jo went to ask her group, who had elected her as a LibDem leader, they refused to support her.”

Cllr Brian Dalton (Lib Dem), who is also a Wiltshire councillor, said the party did not believe they had a mandate to lead the council considering the outcome of the elections and that despite the Conservatives saying it would not be a coalition it “clearly would have been” - something the party is keen to avoid in the run up to the general election in May 2015.

He said: “I have never heard of a resignation quite so close to an election and I have to say, in a letter to Jo, I did ask her to resign. Some people in her ward (Fisherton and Bemerton Village) have contacted me and they are absolutely fuming.”

In response to the calls for her resignation cllr Broom said: “My reasons for changing are personal. “I don’t feel that it has any reflection on my role as a city councillor - if I was a unitary councillor it would be different.

“It’s not something I particularly want to comment on, I haven’t broken any rules.”