Birmingham si prepara al caos mentre il voto multipartitico lascia il consiglio senza timone

> Birmingham risks being plunged into chaos after a crushing election result for the ruling Labour group left the embattled city council with no political leadership just as it was moving on from a bankruptcy crisis. Reform UK emerged as the largest party after the May 7 vote but has opted to sit in opposition, saying other parties had declined to work with it. Labour, which had led the council since 2012, announced on Friday evening that it would not enter any coalition or power-sharing agreement. This has left the Green Party, which came second, struggling to form an administration to oversee the largest local authority in Europe.

> The West Midlands city illustrates how the rise of multi-party politics is changing the nature of English local government — at a time when councils are already struggling with financial challenges. Increasing numbers of English councils have ‘no overall control’, meaning no party has a majority and coalitions or other arrangements are necessary for decision-making. Nearly half of councils that had elections this month now have no overall control, up from around a quarter before the vote. Birmingham, which is responsible for more than one million residents, has a particularly colourful political map. As it stands, Reform has 23 councillors, followed by the Greens at 19, Labour at 17, Conservatives at 16, pro-Gaza independents and the closely aligned Workers Party at 14 and Liberal Democrats at 12. The Labour council leader John Cotton was among those to lose their seat.

> One person close to Birmingham Labour said the party’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) had blocked the possibility of a coalition or power-sharing agreement. In a statement, the local group said the election results showed it was “time for us to reflect carefully on the result, listen to residents, and rebuild trust and support with our communities”. England’s second city is already known as a cautionary tale of administrative failure. It has been forced to make hundreds of millions of pounds in cuts to public services to help balance its books after declaring effective bankruptcy in 2023 and remains under the supervision of government commissioners. In 2025, a dispute over job cuts prompted bin workers from the trade union Unite to go on strike, leaving rubbish piling high in the streets.

> Labour’s failure to end the bin strike figured prominently in the local election campaign, alongside £750mn in public asset sales and a 17.5 per cent rise in council tax over the past two years. A little over a week before May’s election, Labour did announce an agreement with Unite. The deal included a £16,000 payout for workers affected by job cuts and, if approved by the council, would have ended more than 16 months of strikes. It’s now unclear how the industrial action will be resolved. But there are signs that the Greens would follow through with Labour’s deal. Matthew Reed, a bin lorry driver and local representative with Unite, said he was “cautiously optimistic” about prospects for the council following a meeting with national Green Party leader Zack Polanski and Birmingham Green head Julien Pritchard. Meanwhile, Westminster-appointed commissioners are waiting in the wings and Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell, who represents a Birmingham constituency, said he expected the government would “need to give the commissioners far greater powers”.

> The fallout of the election result has been significant. A person close to the Greens said there were “frustrations” over Labour’s refusal to work together. The newly selected leader of the local Reform group, 24-year-old Jex Parkin, said other parties had “made it clear that they refuse to work with us”, leaving Reform with no viable route to take control. Rajbir Singh, a newly elected Reform councillor who was previously a Labour council leader in nearby Sandwell, said the party would push for a DOGE-style programme of cost-cutting. While independent candidates may have benefited from Labour’s unpopularity, their fragmented political views pose problems for council governance. Akhmed Yakoob, a controversial self-described “revolutionary centrist”, organised candidates in a populist, pro-Gaza campaign known as the Independent Candidates Alliance (ICA). The criminal lawyer was barred from standing himself due to allegations of money laundering, which he denies.

> The ICA-backed councillors, who have also ruled out forming any coalition, include Raihaan Abbas, a 22-year-old lawyer and Yakoob’s mentee at Maurice Andrews, a small law firm that advertises on TikTok and specialises in defending those accused of fraud, sex offences and terrorism charges. Abbas argued that the independent candidates could do more for their community by remaining in opposition. “We’re showing the people there’s power outside the government,” he said. The ICA, which is aligned with George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain, has clashed with the Greens over diverging views on LGBTQ rights and sex education in schools.

> Other newly elected independents, such as Harris Khaliq, a former KPMG employee backed by Jeremy Corbyn’s Your Party, have distanced themselves from the ICA. Paul Tilsley, a veteran Liberal Democrat councillor who lost his seat last week, said he expected to see “pork-barrel politics” among independent candidates seeking to exchange support for their local wards for supportive votes on the council. Khaliq told the FT he was hopeful that the independents, many of whom represent deprived areas, could secure the cabinet portfolio for regeneration. But there is a long way to go before a new Birmingham administration can begin to govern. “I can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Khaliq.

*Who* is saying this? Seems like this another media commentary, rather than based upon anything else.

Joanne Roney CBE is the Managing Director of Birmingham City Council.