A SON of one of Southend’s most prominent businessmen is aiming to shake-up the city’s politics, by leading a new party into next month’s council elections.

Voters will head to the polls on May 5, with 18 of the 51 seats up for grabs.
Southend is currently run by a Labour, Liberal Democrat and Independent coalition. 

The Conservatives are the largest party with 20 seats, and are hoping to regain control after losing it in 2019.

James Miller is leading the newly-formed Confelicity Party into the vote, who will also be joined on voting slips by the Green Party and the Women’s Equality Party alongside the major parties.

Mr Miller, who previously ran as a Labour candidate, said: “I believed in the perceived Labour principles of building a kind and compassionate society, but found the Southend Labour party was far from that.

“Southend could do with a local party that doesn’t have to have national restrictions and bureaucracy to go through. A party that is purely local, totally devoted to Southend, without political ambitions.”

Mr Miller, 40, is the son of Adventure Island owner Philip Miller MBE, and is himself a director of Stockvale, the parent company which owns the leisure destination.

He formed his own party after falling out with Labour over the issue of Covid ‘passports’, and named it Confelicity which means to take delight in someone else’s happiness.

A number of the party’s 16 candidates are Stockvale employees, but Mr Miller denied his party was “the Stockvale Party”, adding: “It has nothing to do with the business.

“This is my project that I am personally funding out of my own money.”

Another candidate who has switched parties is Floyd Waterworth, who stood for Parliament in Rochford and Southend East as a UKIP candidate. He is now Conservative council candidate in Eastwood Park, having also served as a UKIP councillor.

Southend Conservatives have become a home for a number of ex-UKIP members in recent years, with councillors Dave McGlone and James Moyies also switching parties.

Father and son duo, John and Keaton Harland are running for the Tories in West Shoebury and Milton wards respectively.

John Harland said: “He is running in a ward that I ran in last year, so he is following in my campaign footsteps if you like. I am very proud.”

Also in Milton ward, senior Labour councillor Cheryl Nevin, responsible for adult social care and health integration, is stepping down from the council to spend more time with her family.

“Serving the people of Southend has absolutely been an honour,” she said.
“Hopefully one day in the future I can return to it, but for now I have people I need to care for.”