Labour has lost Birmingham Council after 14 calamitous years in charge of the city council.
The party had feared it would be in for a punishing day in Britain’s second city, with current results showing it has picked up less than 20 seats, down from the 65 won at the last election in 2022.
Since then, the Labour-led administration in the city has lurched from crisis to crisis, declaring effective bankruptcy in 2023 and overseeing a year-long bin strike which left mountains of rubbish in the streets.
Birmingham Northfield MP Larry Turner admitted defeat for Labour just before 3pm, telling ITV News: ‘It does look like we’re heading for a period in opposition.’
A few hours later, outgoing Labour leader John Cotton also accepted defeat and said he expected to lose his seat.
Bizarrely, he suggested to the Mail that the party’s problem had been one of messaging and not their catastrophic time in charge of the city.
He said: ‘I think we need to listen carefully to the message that the electorates have given us today and we need to think about how we start to tell in a more coherent and systematic way the story of the great things that this Labor government is doing.’
With 83 out of 101 seats now declared, the council looks set to be left hopelessly divided, with no overall control.
Reform UK has so far won 21 seats, the Conservative Party 16 seats and Labour 13 seats. Independent candidates had won 10 seats, including several Muslim sectarian candidates – the youngest of whom, Mansuur Ahmed, is just 19 years old.
Despite keeping pace with Reform and the Conservatives in the early results, the mood music among Labour figures at the count at Birmingham’s Utilita Arena quickly became grim.
A Labour source said earlier today that they feared speculation it faced a ‘bin fire’ in its battle to retain a significant number of seats on Birmingham City Council would prove accurate.
The source tipped Reform UK, Green and independent candidates to prosper, adding: ‘Let’s just say I haven’t seen anyone looking even remotely happy.
‘The mood is worse than bad. It’s bleak.’
Labour, led by Cllr John Cotton in Birmingham, expected a ‘bin fire’ in the city council elections
Voters have turned against Labour over issues including the bin strike which left mountains of rubbish in the streets
Polls this week suggested Reform could emerge as the biggest party in the city, albeit short of a majority, while Labour could be facing a wipeout.
The Muslim sectarian independents, riding a wave of discontent in Muslim-majority wards about the conflict in Gaza, are expected to end the day as one of the biggest blocs in the council.
Speaking to the Mail at the count, Reform deputy leader Richard Tice said the party had ‘absolutely smashed it’ in the West Midlands, although he predicted it would be ‘very tight’ in Birmingham.
He said it was ‘guaranteed’ that Labour would suffer a humiliating day in Birmingham.
On the rise of the independents, Mr Tice said: ‘It shows the huge demographic shift in some of our cities, the bigger towns, with no democratic mandate from the British people.
‘I think it’s a great shame that crucially important local elections to run Birmingham better are in some wards being dominated by geopolitics in the Middle East.
‘It’s at best a shame and most people would say it’s not right.’
One of the most controversial independent candidates in the election has been Shahid Butt, a convicted terrorist jailed for plotting to blow up the British consulate in Yemen in 1999.
But he effectively conceded defeat in Sparkhill before the result was declared – telling the Mail he believed Labour would hold the seat.
‘From what I’ve seen (Labour) have kind of got it,’ he said. ‘The big protest vote from Labour has gone to the Greens. In my ward Labour have definitely benefited from a vote bank. It’s blind loyalty.’
In the event, Labour candidates Rashad Mahmood and Bushra Bi held their seats in the ward.