A high-profile Kirklees councillor has been ditched by her own party.

Leading Labour party official Karen Rowling was dropped as a candidate and won’t be able to stand for re-election to her Dewsbury West seat.

Clr Rowling, who will remain on Kirklees Council until May when her four-year term expires, claimed she was the victim of an “18 month campaign of hate” by Labour colleagues.

Clr Rowling, also chairman of Dewsbury Constituency Labour Party and office manager to Dewsbury MP Paula Sherriff, lost out in a selection vote at the Dewsbury West branch on Thursday night.

She lost out overwhelmingly to mother-of-two Mussarat Pervaiz, 37, and has now been de-selected.

Mussarat Pervaiz, who may represent Dewsbury West as a councillor after sitting councillor Karen Rowling was deselected
Mussarat Pervaiz, who may represent Dewsbury West as a councillor after sitting councillor Karen Rowling was deselected

Mrs Pervaiz, who works as a lunchtime supervisor at Diamond Wood Community Academy in Ravensthorpe, said she was delighted with the vote by around 50 members at Ravensthorpe Community Centre.

Mrs Pervaiz, who stood against Clr Rowling for selection in 2011, said it had been a difficult decision to stand against a sitting councillor but that the outcome merited her action.

She said: “I am not going to say that it wasn’t hard. She was the sitting councillor but it was the members’ choice. They wanted change.

“I won by 36 or 38 votes to 12. It was an overwhelming victory.”

Dewsbury hospital demonstration at Dewsbury town hall. Spen Valley MP, Demonstrators at the front of the town hall with organisers, (left to right) Paula Sherriff, Wendy Senior, Christine Hoyle and Clr Karen Rowling last March

Speaking to the Examiner, Clr Rowling, of Mirfield, said she left “with her head held high.”

She added: “I was selected in December 2011 and within two weeks members of the executive were trying to de-select me. There’s been an 18-month – if not four-year – hate campaign going on and I have fought a rearguard action ever since.

“One of the people involved hates me with a passion. I knew before I turned up on Thursday that it was a fait accompli.

“People have reacted with disbelief and outrage on my behalf. On Thursday night I had 40 text messages asking me what on earth was happening. I am very well respected and hard-working but there it is.”

Dewsbury West Labour councillor Mumtaz Hussain said: “I feel sorry for Karen but, at the end of the day, it is the members’ decision. You can’t argue with the members.

Clr Darren O'Donovan
Clr Darren O'Donovan

“Maybe she was concentrating on her office work and was not visible enough in the ward.

“Obviously she was gutted. She was not happy. It’s up to the members, isn’t it? They decided that she has been a councillor for four years and they didn’t want her anymore.

“But it’s always upsetting when a sitting councillor is taken out. She has done a lot of hard work.”

Branch chairman Paul Ellis said: “Karen Rowling has a lot of political life in front of her. She is very competent.”

It is not the first time a Labour councillor has faced problems in Dewsbury West. In October last year, sitting councillor Darren O’Donovan failed an interview selection test and was denied a place on the candidates’ list for Kirklees Council elections in May.

But he fought back and won an appeal against de-selection by his own party.

And last October Clr Judith Hughes, the first ever female leader of West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority, dramatically lost her Greenhead seat to Carole Pattison after being de-selected though she went on to win a seat in Almondbury in May.