National Labour Party sends ‘improvement team’ in to monitor Nottingham City Council

The party says the move will help the council get out of financial difficulty, but some local members say they feel the national party is ‘forcing’ its leadership on the council and intervening in local democracy.

Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC), which provides strategic direction for the party as a whole, says it is sending in the senior officials to ‘support’ the local Labour group.

A Campaign Improvement Board – or CIB – was established in recent weeks, a group spokesperson said.

It has been set up to deal with problems it sees as linked to the imposition of the new council leadership by the NEC, a team of Government-appointed commissioners, and continued ‘tough decisions to fix the local authority’.

In February last year, the then-Conservative Government sent in three commissioners to oversee changes at the Labour-led council following its declaration of effective bankruptcy in November 2023.

A month later then-council leader Coun David Mellen (Lab) announced he would be stepping down, but the Labour Party’s NEC stepped in to select the new leader, rather than leaving it to the local Labour group.

The intervention by the NEC prompted concerns local Labour members had been ‘usurped’ – said opposition leader Coun Kevin Clarke (Ind) – by the national party with the appointment of Coun Neghat Khan (Lab).

Coun Khan was chosen as the new leader in May of last year.

A Nottingham Labour Group spokesperson said: “In recent weeks a Nottingham CIB was established to work alongside the Labour group in Nottingham and help support them going forward.

“The CIB was initially established in February 2024 to offer help and support to the Labour group and group leadership as part of the NEC intervention last year following the Government appointment of commissioners.

“The CIB’s formation was unfortunately delayed due to elections and staff turnover in the regional office.

"Now they have been appointed, they will help the Labour group and the new Labour leadership at the council as they continue to focus on taking the tough and responsible decisions to fix the local authority, and are making progress as part of a local and national period of renewal with a Labour Government.”

Local Labour sources told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) the decision by the NEC to appoint the board came as a surprise.

One source said it could be seen as the Labour Party ‘shoring up’ the current unelected leadership, while getting rid of any opposition.

Another said the leadership had been forced upon the city, and that they were losing faith in the Labour Party due to its methods of intervention in local democracy.

The city’s Labour Group was informed of the move at a meeting on March 10.

The LDRS approached the Labour Party for comment, but was told it had nothing further to add.

The names of the senior Labour officials, who will be appointed to the roles of chair and vice-chair of the board, are not yet being made public.

Similar CIBs have been appointed in places such as Birmingham, which also has a Labour-led council.

The council kept its Labour majority at the election in May 2023, with the party obtaining 51 seats at the time.

However, in the period following, two members, Couns Shuguftah Quddoos and Nadia Farhat, quit the party.

Coun Farhat quit to stand as an independent due to the party’s stance on the Israel-Gaza conflict, while Coun Quddoos quit to join the Green Party due to her concerns over continued budget cuts by the ruling Labour administration.

The Labour Party also recently lost control of Broxtowe Council, after 18 members quit the party to stand under the new Broxtowe Alliance political group, saying they were unhappy with party direction and leadership under Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

The council’s leadership has been contacted for further comment.