Newcastle Council leader survives confidence vote
Newcastle’s council leader has survived a vote of no confidence that threatened to remove her from office after just two months.
A Lib Dem attempt to oust Karen Kilgour failed on Wednesday night, as city councillors voted to keep the Labour leader in power.
The West Fenham councillor was only installed as Nick Kemp’s replacement in the civic centre hotseat at the beginning of October, becoming the first woman to lead the council.
But her position was thrown into question after her predecessor and five other councillors quit the Labour Party to become independents last month, wiping out Labour’s majority in the council chamber.
The Liberal Democrats, who are the second largest party on the council with 22 seats compared to Labour’s 39, tested Coun Kilgour’s ability to command the council chamber with a motion to remove her from office at tonight’s full council meeting.
Councillors present ultimately voted by a margin of 37 to 30 in support of the council leader, with one abstention, after a tense and turbulent night of political machinations.
Labour narrowly won a first vote of the night designed to test the waters, prevailing 35 to 34 as they rejected an opposition effort to bring the vote of no confidence up the agenda rather than it being held back to the end of the night.
But, as councillors came and went during the meeting and the numbers changed, Labour became confident of victory and then moved themselves to bring the vote forward.
What followed was a heated and occasionally bad-tempered debate in which the rival parties traded barbs.
Liberal Democrat Christine Morrissey denied that the motion she brought was an attack on a first female council leader, praising Coun Kilgour’s “calm and pleasant” demeanour compared with what she branded an “abrasive and arrogant” approach from Coun Kemp before her.
But she criticised the “chaos” and “rebellion” in the Labour administration and said that the leader did not have a clear mandate to govern, claiming the ruling party was not listening to residents.
Coun Kilgour called leading the council the “honour of my life” and rattled off a list of achievements in her two months in office – including allocating £1 million of funding to pensioners who have lost their winter fuel allowance and dealing with the fallout of the tragic Benwell explosion in October.
She accused the Lib Dems of seeking to “disrupt and divide us” and suggested that they had no prospect of forming a “coalition of chaos” among the various opposition factions to replace Labour.
Council cabinet member Lesley Storey said that councillors of all stripes needed to “have a look at ourselves” and that the political strife on show on Wednesday was “not good enough for residents”.
The only abstention on the vote came from Labour’s Jane Byrne, currently suspended by the party after voting against it in a recent debate on the winter fuel allowance, who said she did not have confidence in the administration but accused the Lib Dems of playing “silly” games with the motion.
The Green Party’s Nick Hartley lamented the “grubbiness” of the vote being shifted around by Labour during the night and called for a different brand of politics based on collaboration and long-term planning to prevail in the city.
Coun Kemp was present in the council chamber for the first time since he resigned as leader in September, after it emerged that he was the subject of a bullying complaint from a senior council director.
He voted to remove Coun Kilgour, his former deputy, as did fellow ex-Labour councillors David and Stevie Wood. Another ex-Labour member turned independent, Marion Williams, left the meeting early and was not present for the key vote.
The series of defections in November left Labour with only half of the council’s seats, 39 out of 78. The remaining seats are currently occupied by 22 Lib Dems, 11 independents, three from the Newcastle Independents party, two Green Party councillors, and one Conservative.
After Wednesday’s meeting, Lib Dem opposition leader Colin Ferguson claimed Labour was “in denial about losing their majority” and that the ruling party had won only a “pyrrhic victory”
He added: “On the strength of the evidence tonight, Coun Kilgour must hope she doesn’t lose another four councillors in the next 18 months.”
Labour deputy leader Alex Hay, who would also have lost his position if the vote of no confidence had passed, said: “The opposition’s attempt to destabilise our leadership is nothing more than a political stunt. While they play games, we will continue doing the real work – fighting for our city, tackling inequality, and building a future that works for everyone. We won’t be diverted by distractions.”