Newcastle’s council leader faces no confidence vote this week
Newcastle’s council leader will face a vote to oust her from power this week, just two months into her reign.
Karen Kilgour became the first female leader in Newcastle City Council’s history when she was installed in October, following Nick Kemp’s resignation.
But she is now set to face a vote of no confidence at what is poised to be an explosive meeting on Wednesday night, the latest episode in what has been a chaotic period at the civic centre.
It comes after her predecessor and five other city councillors quit Labour last month to become independents, thereby wiping out the party’s majority in Newcastle and shifting the council into ‘no overall control’.
The Liberal Democrats, the second largest party on the council with 22 seats compared to Labour’s 39, are bringing a motion to this week’s full council meeting that would remove Coun Kilgour as leader if passed.
While politicians on both sides of the chamber are braced for fireworks, sources have told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the outcome of the motion is difficult to predict with any great confidence and is dependent on how many councillors actually turn up to vote on the night – with particular interest in who among the six who left Labour in November are in attendance.
Should Coun Kilgour lose the test of Labour’s ability to command the council, a new leader would not be appointed immediately.
It is expected that Labour would then propose the appointment of a new leader, potentially Coun Kilgour herself, at the next council meeting in mid-January and that the members of her existing Labour cabinet would continue in the meantime.
The eclectic nature of the councillors sitting on the opposition benches make it unlikely at this stage that a coalition is formed to seek to remove Labour from power entirely.
The 39 non-Labour seats in the council chamber are currently occupied by 22 Lib Dems, 11 independents, three from the Newcastle Independents party, two Green Party councillors, and one Conservative.
Coun Kemp resigned as leader in September, after it emerged that he was the subject of a bullying complaint from a senior council director.
He, former Labour cabinet member Marion Williams, and East End councillors John Stokel-Walker, and David, Margaret, and Stevie Wood then defected to become independents in November.
Those who spoke to the LDRS at the time, David and Stevie Wood, cited the Labour Government’s cuts to the winter fuel allowances and “interference” from party officials in selecting their leader in Newcastle as among the reasons for the departure.
The Lib Dem motion to be voted on this week, proposed by Lib Dem councillor Christine Morrissey, reads: “Council notes that the chamber is now in no overall control, following the defection of six Labour members to independent status. Council believes that the leader cannot continue in post without a clear mandate from council, as now constituted, which can only be tested through a vote under Article Seven of the Constitution. Council accordingly resolves, under Article Seven of the Constitution, to remove the leader.”
A Newcastle City Council spokesperson said: “It is expected that the notice of motion to remove the leader of council will be voted on at Wednesday’s meeting. If the motion is agreed at that meeting, then council will need to appoint a new leader of council. This will happen at the next meeting of council. Until a new leader is appointed, the remaining members of cabinet will act in the leader’s place.”