FOUR councillors have spoken out over why they decided to rejoin Respect after dramatically quitting the party 18 months ago.

Respect leader George Galloway announced on Sunday that four of the party’s former councillors, Faisal Khan (Bradford Moor), Alyas Karmani, (Little Horton), Ishtiaq Ahmed (Manningham) and Ruqayyah Collector (City), would be re-entering the fold.

They, and their colleague Mohammad Shabbir (Heaton), had resigned en-masse after a bitter row with Mr Galloway in 2013 and formed the Bradford Independent Group, leaving the Council with no Respect councillors.

Yesterday, the four councillors said in a joint statement that they had decided to rejoin the party “after much consideration and reflection over the last few months”.

The statement said their original resignation had been prompted by “mainly administrative and operational issues”.

“In essence these fundamental issues have now been resolved through intense dialogue initiated by Respect officials and a clear strategy has been formulated to move the party forward,” the statement said.

Cllr Shabbir, who will not be rejoining Respect, declined to comment.

Speaking to the Telegraph & Argus, the group’s current leader, Cllr Karmani, said the Respect councillors also hoped to build an umbrella group incorporating left-of-centre independents.

But he dismissed suggestions that Cllr Shabbir was preparing to join Labour, saying: “He is a close friend of [Bradford West Labour parliamentary candidate] Naz Shah and he has supported her election campaign. After the May elections we will sit down with him and also he is most welcome to join our broader group.”

The four Respect councillors would also elect a new leader for the group in May, Cllr Karmani said.