Labour lost control of a borough council last week after 20 of its 26 councillors sensationally ditched the party and set up its own - the Broxtowe Independents. The party immediately replaced Labour as the largest party on Broxtowe Borough Council, which shifts to no overall control. Existing council leader Milan Radulovic will continue in his role, but no longer under the Labour banner. The Conservatives remain the opposition party with 10 councillors.
The Labour councillors quit the party in protest at the national leadership, with particular grievance being felt towards the scrapping of the winter fuel allowance for millions of pensioners. This appears to have been the tipping point, with existing tensions already present over candidate selections and a row about access to a bank account that had been used to fund a community hub. The hub ended up having to close, with the Broxtowe Labour group claiming that their own party had barred them from using funds from the account.
The mass resignation from Labour also had a knock on effect for the county council. Labour had been the joint opposition on Nottinghamshire County Council, but one of its departing Broxtowe councillors was also a county councillor, meaning that Labour slip into third place there also. Up to that point they had formed an equal joint opposition alongside the Nottinghamshire County Independence Group.
A statement from the now dramatically reduced Broxtowe Labour group played down the resignations, as if only three or four had quit: "It is incredibly disappointing that some Broxtowe councillors have decided to leave the Labour Party and sit as independents when they were elected on a Labour ticket just over 18 months ago. These defections have no effect on the commitment of the remaining Labour councillors in serving our residents."
No effect? Your party no longer controls the council!
With Labour now third and its national popularity in free fall, the Tories will be eyeing up Broxtowe for a gain. Labour and the Conservatives have competed for control of the Nottinghamshire authority for decades, with Labour having only regained control in 2023. For almost half of its 51 years, Broxowe has been held by the Tories, thanks largely to the fact they held it for 21 years from its inception in 1974. It then passed directly into Labour hands, before spending 12 years in no overall control. The Tories took it back in 2015 and it fell back into no overall control four years later.
There are no local elections scheduled for Broxtowe until 2027, meaning Labour look set to be the third party for the foreseeable future.
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| Council leader Milan Radulovic (front) launches the Broxtowe Independents |
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