Local Councils

Local councils and local services

Sheriff of Nottingham votes against cuts

On Monday 4 March, Councillor Shuguftah Quddoos, the Sheriff of Nottingham, was the only councillor in the city to vote against the Government-imposed cuts. Her speech was a simple but powerful message to her fellow Labour councillors, delivered to those outside City Hall and later in the council chamber itself. “Kids in care, people in temporary accommodation, vulnerable adults, our social workers, social housing tenants, our charities and volunteers, our artists and protectors of culture, do not have a vote. But I do, and I will vote against this budget today. It’s true that Nottingham has...

Leeds pledges no “work notices”

At the Yorkshire and Humber TUC conference on 16-17 March, Leeds City Council leader James Lewis said his council would never use the Tories’ Minimum Service Act, which lets the government set “minimum service” levels in various sectors and then employers issue “work notices” to oblige named workers to break strikes to deliver those levels. There will be a formal vote on this at a full council meeting on 20 March, though the wording looks unclear. On 9 December 2023 Lewis joined with several other Labour council leaders and mayors to declare : “We will work with trades unions and employers to...

Reinstate Lambeth councillors!

The right-wing Labour council group in Lambeth, south London, has suspended four councillors from the Labour whip for defying orders to vote against a Green motion (in January) for a ceasefire in Gaza. The suspension came on 26 February — after the whole Labour leadership had come out for an immediate ceasefire (21 February) and long after London Labour mayor Sadiq Khan and several Labour councils had made that call. Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Labour MP for one of the Lambeth constituencies, has condemned the suspensions. Sonia Winifred, suspended for three months, has resigned from her council seat...

Stopping the cuts in Nottingham

On Saturday morning, February 24, an emergency protest in Nottingham denounced the imposition of commissioners to run the city council. The move for commissioners, three months after the council’s Chief Finance Officer declared the council unable to balance its budget (“section 114”) on 29 November, and a year after an external Interim Advisory Board gained “powers of direction” over the council, may show concern in government that a growing campaign in Nottingham has the potential to mobilise many people in the city against cuts. One councillor has already said she will vote against the cuts...

More action in Northern Ireland pay fight

An estimated 150,000 workers took part in 24 hours strike in the North of Ireland on 18 January, including nurses, teachers, bus drivers, carers, cleaners and civil servants from 16 unions. Their core demand was aimed at the British government: to release the £0.6m for public sector pay uplifts which it is holding back as a gambit to pressure the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to end its boycott of Stormont. The party collapsed the Northern Ireland power-sharing regime in February 2022 in protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol. Around 10,000 joined a rally in Belfast, with...

Getting moving against the cuts

On Thursday 18 January, more than 50 people met on a cold night to discuss how we fight the horrendous cuts In Nottingham

Fight council cuts, not just section 114

On 29 November Nottingham’s Labour council issued a “section 114” notice, meaning that it is legally barred from any spending beyond the already-contracted-for and work the council has to do by law. The council’s (unelected) chief finance officer issued the notice, as he is obliged to do by law if he assesses that the council cannot balance its budget. The council is now legally obliged to come up with budget-balancing moves within 14 days. That makes 12 councils since 2018 to do section 114. There were only two in the previous 18 years. There is talk of many more soon. Council leaders...

Building wealth on cuts?

Discussion at The World Transformed (TWT) festival that took place alongside Labour Party conference (7-10 October) reinforced how disoriented much of the left is on local government. The TWT session on “ecosocialism” — really more about local community organising — featured a speaker from “Cooperation Hull”, a group of activists who have organised meetings they call “People’s Assemblies” in the town and are now planning to stand in local elections there. Some of the organising Cooperation Hull has done sounded interesting and even impressive, but what their speaker said begged many questions...

Gove sends in Commissioners to raid Birmingham

On 19 September, the ironically titled Levelling Up Secretary, Michael Gove, announced he would be sending in commissioners to take over the running of Birmingham city council. The commissioners will very likely oversee the plundering of Birmingham, with the sale of council assets such as landmark buildings, jobs cuts, and funding cuts that will massively impact the charity sector. Two observations. One, for years the argument from the Labour Right and the official Left has been that Labour councils shouldn't actually resist implementing austerity (as with Lambeth and Liverpool councils in the...

Labour, democracy, and Rosebank

Activists from Workers' Liberty and supporters of Solidarity will be at Labour Party conference and women's conference, 7-11 October in Liverpool. We'll be there to help the efforts of Free Our Unions, the Labour Campaign for Free Movement, the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, India Labour Solidarity, and other campaigns; to sell literature, seek discussions and contacts. There will be demonstrations for the NHS and for abortion rights on Saturday, for free education on Sunday. And agitation for a block on new North Sea oil and gas fields, following the Tories' decision to "max out" licences in...

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