Kirklees Labor will go back ‘to the floor’ after losing local elections

The leader of Kirklees Council says the Labor group will go “back to the floor” after last week’s local election results left the council without overall control.

A scrupulous vote count on Friday (May 3) saw the ruling Labor group lose their majority, their number of seats falling from 35 to 31. Former Council leader Shabir Pandor lost his seat as well as two cabinet members – Jackie Ramsay (Dewsbury). South) and Mussarat Pervaiz (Dewsbury West).

A group-by-group breakdown of the results and the places that were lost or gained is as follows:

Work: 31 (-4)

Conservatives: 15 (-3)

Lib Dems: 10 (+2)

Greens: 4 (+1)

Kirklees Community Independents: 3 (-1)

Independent: 6 (+5)

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Now that the council does not have overall control, it can be run through a minority administration – where the largest group rules – or a coalition could be formed. Council leader Cllr Cathy Scott made it clear that she hoped to continue as council leader and that a coalition was not something she was immediately considering.

Responding to last week’s results, she said: “We’ve made some gains in South Kirklees and North Kirklees. We need to go back to the drawing board, we listen – we need to listen more to the community. We have an emotional situation at the moment and I think that happened today.”

Kirklees was one of the few councils to buck the national trend of Labor gains. Overall, the party won control of eight councils, with Kirklees and Oldham the only two to escape a Labor majority.

The council has faced many challenges since voters last went to the polls, with a £47 million black hole in its budget leading to cuts in several areas. This proved hugely unpopular with residents, with a community campaign group forming to try to save care homes, town halls and leisure centers from closure.

Furthermore, the impact of the Israel-Hamas conflict on the shape of Kirklees Council cannot be ignored, with four Labor members defecting and forming their own group – Kirklees Community Independents (KCI) – due to the party’s position on the Middle East. . It is not clear how many newly elected independent councilors will be part of the KCI.

When I asked Cllr Scott if she thought this had a hand in the election result, she said: “I think part of it, but people want to be appreciated and listened to, so what we have to do is let’s go back, do the analysis, listen to the people and get back to our communities. Democracy has prevailed today, however, it is about listening and bringing it back to our community.”

On the standoff, she added: “I feel that we as a Labor group and as a Labor party have done the best we can going forward. I made the motions, I heard the motions, I wrote to Rishi. We’ve done everything we can in local services and that’s what we’re all about – local services, delivering services for residents. There’s a limited amount of things I can do for what’s going on internationally.”

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