Labour’s NEC stepping in to vet candidates for next city council leader
NATIONAL BODY TO HOLD INTERVIEWS
THE Labour Party’s national governing body is directly intervening in the selection of Nottingham City Council’s next leader.
The Post understands that potential candidates will be interviewed by Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) before those deemed suitable are then presented to Nottingham’s Labour group to choose from.
It comes after David Mellen announced he would not stand again to be the council’s leader after having managed the authority since 2019.
Nottingham Labour was elected for another four years at last May’s local elections but every year, the party holds a meeting among its councillors to decide who its leader will be for the next 12 months.
The meeting was due to be held yesterday, but it is understood the NEC’S intervention will now delay the process.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “The challenges facing Nottingham City Council are a result of 14 years of brutal Conservative cuts to local government.
“Nottingham is not alone in facing these challenges but local people have borne the cost of Tory chaos. Labour’s plans for local government will give Nottingham City Council the tools it needs to deliver for local people.”
The Post previously reported that names mentioned in Labour circles as potential successors to Councillor Mellen include Steve Battlemuch, Sam Gardiner, Neghat Khan and Adele Williams.
It is not yet clear when the new leader will now be chosen, but Councillor Mellen’s successor is due to take office in May.
The NEC’S involvement appears at this stage to be limited to simply vetting candidates before councillors get to choose, but the national party has become more directly involved in other areas. Birmingham City Council’s leadership election last May ended up with the NEC making the final call to appoint John Cotton without consulting councillors.
Labour’s national body has also been intervening over the council’s budget process. Nottingham councillors absent from the city’s March 4 budget meeting were asked to sign a statement confirming they would have backed brutal cuts if they attended.
Eleven councillors did not attend the meeting, with reasons including childcare and work commitments given. Labour said they expected councillors to approve the measures as the authority has a legal duty to pass a balanced budget.
Yet the severity of the cuts saw Sheriff of Nottingham Councillor Shuguftah Quddoos defying these orders and becoming the only councillor at the meeting to vote against the budget. She was immediately suspended from Labour.
Speaking about Councillor Mellen’s decision to step down, Labour leader Keir Starmer told the Post: “He’s standing down. He’s given that public service, which is very important. But the challenges are not to do with the leader of the council. The challenges are to do with the failure of the Government to support our councils and to simply put more and more burdens on them.”