The Labour party’s 14-year leadership of Birmingham city council has come to an end after Reform UK, the Green party, and pro-Gaza independents made significant gains in the UK’s second-largest city. No party has yet won an overall majority at Birmingham city council, one of Europe’s largest local authorities, with the results reflecting wider political fragmentation across England.
Labour losses and national trends
Labour lost hundreds of council seats across England, many to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which made big gains in the Midlands and the north while also taking seats from the Conservatives in the south. In Birmingham, where all 101 seats were up for election, Labour was expected to suffer significant losses. The council has been plagued by a series of problems in recent years, including declaring bankruptcy in 2023, subsequent cuts to local services, and an ongoing bin strike that has led to images of rubbish piled on the city’s streets making headlines worldwide.
Electoral results and party gains
The local authority, which manages a £4.4 billion budget, has so far lost more than 30 Labour councillors. In contrast, Reform UK gained 21 councillors, and the Green party gained 11. Independents also secured 10 seats, with some focusing their campaigns on a pro-Gaza message. Nigel Farage hailed the results as a “historic shift in politics.”
Reactions from political leaders
Outgoing Labour leader of the council, John Cotton, said the party needed to “listen carefully to the message” of the electorate and called on the party to better communicate its vision to voters. “We know that midterm elections are always difficult for the party of government,” he said. “We need to think about how we start to tell in a more coherent, systematic way, the story of the great things that this Labour government is doing.” Defending his record, Cotton noted he had to take “difficult decisions to bring the finances back into balance” and tackle “longstanding challenges that have dogged this council for many years like equal pay.”
Cotton, who has served as a Labour councillor in Birmingham for 25 years, also called for greater unity amid fears that the success of Reform, Greens, and pro-Gaza independents could leave the city ungovernable. In April, a longstanding Liberal Democrat councillor who lost his seat to Reform warned the result could be “somewhat of a bugger’s muddle.”
Independent voices and future governance
Nosheen Khalid, an independent candidate elected to represent the inner-city ward of Alum Rock, said voters “had enough” of the Labour party and it was “no longer the political home for a lot of people.” She criticised Labour for causing “a lot of damage in Birmingham,” citing the bankruptcy and cuts to youth services. When challenged on whether the election result would make the council ungovernable, Khalid said: “Birmingham has not been effectively governed for a very long time. It won’t be much worse than it is now, it can only get better when you have representatives who are grassroots.”
Khalid, who was endorsed by Jeremy Corbyn’s Your Party, ruled out working with Reform UK in Birmingham—which may become the largest party on the council—and called the party “divisive.” When pressed on the specific focus some independents placed on LGBTQ+ issues and Gaza, Khalid denied claims of antisemitism and homophobia. “I can’t speak for other candidates,” she said. “We believe everybody deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, and everybody has a place in society.” Khalid said she wants to focus her tenure on issues such as child poverty, overcrowding, and the lack of youth centres.
