To the surprise of Green Councillors, Labour Councillor Phil Black resigned his leadership of Lancaster City Council at the full council meeting on Wednesday 13 November 2024. He effectively ended the alliance agreement between Labour, Greens and Lib Dems who have jointly been running the Council since May 2023.
Leader of the Green Group, Councillor Caroline Jackson said:
“We were disappointed that Councillor Black and the Labour group should have chosen this abrupt and emotional way of ending the current administration, and announce that they have chosen to be in opposition. Cllr Black could and should have given advance notice so that a new leader could have been elected at the meeting. The effect of this action in the middle of the budget process is to halt essential work and ultimately delay decision-making.
“Cllr Black misrepresented the perfectly civil negotiations between the Labour and Green leaders and deputy leaders in recent weeks.
“It is a fact that Labour has lost three seats and become the smaller political group. Back in May 2023, Cllr Black insisted that he should be leader of the Council because Labour had more councillors than Greens.
“Cllr Black has been unwilling or unable to negotiate with us to create a smooth transition to a Green leadership at this point, and he had not even committed to doing so in May when the current arrangement was due to end. For the record, our offer in the negotiations was to reduce Cabinet from 10 places to 9, with Greens and Labour having 4 places each but transferring the leadership to Greens, and the Lib Dems keeping one place.
“I personally would like to commend all the members of the Liberal-Democrat, Green and Labour cross-party administration that has just been terminated. It has been hard working, co-operative, and broadly successful.”
Deputy leader of the Green Group, Gina Dowding added:
“From the outset Labour did not follow through on the draft agreement that was created in May 2023 – in some haste – between the three political groups. One of that agreement’s underpinning principles was ‘Further details to be addressed via a working agreement.’
“Having secured the leadership, Cllr Black refused to have any further conversations to complete what was, and still is, a draft agreement.
“We were also taken aback that nine months in he announced, without prior discussion and via email, a re-shuffle of the Cabinet places. This was despite the administration agreement establishing which portfolio areas each group would have. Cllr Black expressly reminded us that the Council administration was a hierarchical organisation and ‘the Greens might not like that, but they better get used to it.’ He made policy announcements which did not meet our joint commitment to ‘no surprises’.
“Despite all this, I do agree with the sentiments that Cllr Black expressed at Full Council that much has been achieved by the cross-party administration, which makes is all the more surprising that they would choose to withdraw from it. We would really like the Labour group to reconsider the position it took on Wednesday night and resume the cabinet posts it held, under Green leadership.”
Based on the respective numbers of councillors in each party, the administration had consisted of 5 Labour Cabinet members (including the leader), 4 Greens and 1 Lib Dem. Cllr Black’s announcement followed two negotiation meetings between the Greens and Labour about the way forward for the shared administration. In two recent by-elections caused by Labour City Councillors resigning from the council – in the University and Scotforth East wards – there had been significant increase in support for the Green Party, who won both seats. Labour had also lost a third councillor due to an internal group fall out.
Out of 61 Council seats, the Greens now have 23 (up from 21), Labour 21 (down from 24), while Lib Dems have 7, Conservatives 5, Morecambe Bay Independents 3, and two non-aligned Independents.