Labour to lead council despite heavy election loss

Labour will lead Sheffield Council despite losing 10 seats across the city in the local elections.

Councillor Fran Belbin was elected as the new leader unopposed and will take over from Tom Hunt, who lost his Walkley seat.

No single party has an outright majority following the May council elections; Labour holds 25 seats, the Liberal Democrats 22 and the Green Party 20 of the 84 total spaces.

Belbin admitted Labour had not done well in the ballot: "It is certainly incumbent on us to make sure we are talking with other groups and working together to get things done. During the election we were told over and over again to get the basics right and tackle litter, fly-tipping and parking issues."

The Lib Dems announced ahead of the meeting that "after much consideration" they would not form part of the council administration.

The Greens, who expanded their number of seats from 13 to 20, will take on more roles to reflect their election success and said they would work with Labour "to ensure stability".

Green Party leader Angela Argenzio said: "We have worked hard to negotiate a functioning leadership of the council so that people can receive the best public services we can provide.

"We will face up to difficult decisions, doing our best to find a balance between different viewpoints."

Reform UK increased their seats from one to 13 in the local elections but have since fallen back down to 11 councillors.

Coun Mick Lee was elected in Shiregreen and Brightside for Reform on May 7 but has already left the party to become Independent.

He said: "I left because of different types of personalities within the group. People voted for me for change, rather than one of the three mainstream parties, and I don't want to force a by-election as that would be an expense people shouldn't have."

Nathanial Menday was also elected as a Reform councillor in Woodhouse but has since been suspended by the party and is sitting as an Independent.

Since being suspended, he posted on social media that he was "considering his future".

His post said: "The question remains in my mind whether it might be too much for myself and my family and whether with this, and my status as an Independent, I would be able to carry out my duties to a standard I would be happy with.

"I'm going to need time to contemplate my own future and for things to settle down so I will be putting some distance between myself and this for a few weeks, specifically a few thousand miles."

He went on to say he would not apologies for social media messages or jokes, since deleted, because his "sense of humour is not for everyone but neither are his posts".

He adds: "I will proudly call myself right wing and I'll even admit to having flirted with more radical ways of thinking but I reject any ideology that would target people simply because of who they are."

The other Independents are councillor Qais Al-Ahdal and former Labour councillor Gareth Slater.

There are also two members of the Sheffield Community Councillors group, Denise Fox and Dianne Hurst, both of whom were originally elected for Labour in 2023.

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