Sheffield Council election: ousting of Labour leader overshadows poll results with no change overall

The announcement this morning (Friday, May 5) that Labour had forced out council leader Coun Terry Fox in the aftermath of the damning Lowcock Report into the tree scandal and put Sheffield Labour into special measures overshadowed the election results in what had been a successful day for all three main parties.

The city LibDems retained all their seats in the election, where a third of seats were up for grabs, and Labour and the Greens both won and a lost a seat to each other, meaning that the state of the parties remains the same.

In Hillsborough, current co-chair of the adult, health and social care committee Coun George Lindars Hammond lost his seat to Green Party candidate Toby Mallinson by a margin of 402 votes.

In Nether Edge and Sharrow, first-time Green Party candidate Bev Bennett, replacing Peter Garbutt who stood down, lost to Labour’s candidate Ibby Ullah by 635 votes.

It was one of the highest overall votes in an election notable for its low turnout, very probably affected by the need to have photo ID to vote.

Big question

Labour still have 39 seats, LibDems 29 and Greens have 14, so the council remains under no overall control. The big question for all three parties is what will happen next as the national Labour Party has now stepped in to order council group leadership elections.

LibDem leader Coun Shaffaq Mohmmed said that the choice for next council leader was between a central party-imposed Labour candidate and himself.

Both he and Green Party deputy leader Coun Angela Argenzio said they were surprised by the timing of the announcement.

South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard said he needed someone in place to work with to tackle issues such as improving public transport and the economy and reaching net zero carbon emissions. “I have a huge amount of respect for Terry Fox and the work he has done on behalf of the city throughout his career as a councillor and as leader,” he said.

“We need effective leadership and I need somebody I can work with going forward.”

He called for a new generation of leadership who would listen to the people of Sheffield.

‘Very sorry’

Coun Mohammed said he was very happy with the performance of the LibDems: “We won nine seats last year and 11 seats this year.”

He said the party now has councillors in all the seats in the Hallam constituency, which bodes well for LibDems, but people need to know what the Labour situation means for Sheffield.

“Personally I feel very sorry for how the party threw Terry Fox under the bus this morning. That should never happen to anyone.

“Last year I was trying to fend off the possibility of Conservative commissioners coming in to run Sheffield Council but now I’m going to have to battle with Labour technocrats from London who are going to get the hand-picked Labour leader that they’re going to choose and tell what to say and what to do.

“What authority will Labour councillors have when they can’t speak on behalf of their communities because someone is gong to be telling them what to say and what to do. It doesn’t bode well.”

He added: “Let’s see what the (council) annual meeting holds. The Green Party have got a choice to make – do they want Labour technocrats to be in charge as leader or do they want me? There is no other choice because you either choose a locally democratically-elected leader in myself or someone the Labour Party has approved.”

Special measures

Coun Argenzio said that the elections had gone as her group expected and she was “very very pleased” with the results.

She said her group had not known about the special measures, adding: “Apparently they’ve known for a month. We had no inkling of it.”

Coun Argenzio said: “I think Terry Fox has been holding by a thread on to his position. It was untenable, we knew it was, but what we were expecting was today the announcement of the new leader (after the elections).

“We’re not surprised he resigned, we were hoping and expecting just because of how damning the report was into the trees issue and that hasn’t helped Labour in the election.”

She said that she expected there would be some kind of negotiation between the political groups.

Coun Argenzio added that there needs to be radical change to regain people’s trust in the council. “The trust of the people has been broken so it’s for all of us to regain that trust.

“Most people in Sheffield don’t vote and there is a reason that people don’t vote.”

Read this: All the election updates

Read this: Who won in your ward: full results