Lib Dem Roger Harmer new Birmingham City Council leader

Liberal Democrat Roger Harmer has been elected leader of Birmingham City Council with his party forming a minority administration with the Greens and Better Birmingham Independent Group.

The authority was left in deadlock after the 7 May local elections, with no party reaching the 51 seats needed for a majority.

The council - subject to national scrutiny following a long-running bins strike and its prior financial challenges - is the largest in England, with 101 councillors and a budget of more than £4.4bn to manage.

Following last month's elections, Reform UK ended up with the most councillors in Birmingham - a total of 23 - but the party ruled itself out of controlling the council, stating no one was willing to work with them and there was therefore no viable route to power. One month later on Friday evening, Harmer - whose Lib Dem group has the fewest councillors in the city - became the person in charge.

Speaking immediately after his victory, Harmer - the first ever Liberal Democrat leader of Birmingham City Council - said his priority would be settling the bin strike, which has been running for more than a year.

"There has to be a deal," he said.

He also poured water on the idea that a minority administration automatically amounted to chaos, describing the situation instead as collaboration that would deliver for the people of Birmingham whom he said had been let down for years.

Robert Alden, Conservative, and Reform's Jex Parkin - despite his party's previous statement - were also nominated for leader, but Harmer was voted in with 40 votes amid a number of abstentions.

Labour, which previously ran the council, had also ruled itself out of forming any coalition. The party has 17 councillors in Birmingham - one more than the Conservatives and two fewer than the Greens, the city's second largest block behind Reform.

In 2022, Labour held 65 seats.

More recently, the group had been locked in a row with members of the Unite union over pay and the loss of some job roles, with all-out, continuing strike action beginning in March 2025.

The city brought in agency staff to maintain waste collections, although recycling collections are still not being carried out.

Days from the local elections of 7 May, the then council leader, Labour's John Cotton, said a settlement was "within sight" to resolve the dispute.

Unite officials said any new agreement would have to be put to members but that what was floated by Cotton included compensation of up to £16,000 for workers.

In 2023, the council declared itself effectively bankrupt due to a financial black hole linked to equal pay liabilities and the botched installation of a multi-million-pound IT system.

Government commissioners were brought in to oversee the council's finances and their scrutiny continues.

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