Birmingham Labour has been 'under the control' of unelected party bureaucrats for three years at the behest of senior MPs and party veterans who promised they would bring 'electoral success' in the city, insiders have claimed. Instead they delivered a 'catastrophic outcome' at last week's local election, with a Labour stronghold lost for the foreseeable future.
Local members and councillors were treated 'with contempt' and the party inflicted 'self-harm', said one ex-councillor.
Since publication of a critical internal report about Birmingham Labour in 2023, it was claimed the party's National Executive Committee and West Midlands regional officers had imposed their choice of leader and deputy leader on the city, threatened deselection for councillors who did not follow strict commitments to 'voluntary' campaigning and door-knocking, gagged councillors from speaking out without explicit permission, banned councillors from joining protest marches about issues of conscience, not given local branches and loyal members any input into decision-making around candidate selections and policy, imposed candidates with family or work links to city MPs, and forced council election candidates to put out 'leaflet slop' with general messages promising 'a fresh start' rather than the chance to highlight specific local achievements.
Councillors were said to have had no choice but to accede or leave, with the party urging councillors to trust their ability to 'achieve success' in the 2026 local elections.
Active travel campaigner and former councillor Liz Clements
In the wake of dire results locally on May 7, the party was said to have still insisted on choosing the local leader, who was named as Coun Nicky Brennan, and have blocked elected councillors from being part of coalition talks at the splintered council.
Veteran retiring councillors Phil Davis and Liz Clements both called for an urgent review and a 'reset' for the party in Birmingham and a return of local control.
"They have used top down, control freakery, for three years...they have pushed aside local democracy," said respected council veteran Davis, who announced his retirement ahead of the election after being Billesley's councillor for 14 years and in local government for four decades.
He said the party's failure to come up with a way to settle the bin dispute, its control of selections which directly cost seats, and the lack of a clear agenda for change that councillors could sell on the doorstep all played a part in electoral defeat.
"It made for a toxic cocktail that damaged and demoralised the group as we went into this election. The NEC did us no favours, and they also demoralised party members who were then expected to get out on the campaign trail. This is linked to the bigger national debate going on now - Keir Starmer should go."
Fellow retiree Clements urged the party locally to act at speed to rethink how it operated.
"What's happened in Birmingham has absolutely trashed the reputation of the Labour Party, and there should be now a serious reflection on what went wrong," she said. "The party has treated people with contempt. It's been a form of self-harm."
Jez Collins, a longstanding member, spoke up on X/Twitter to say of the decision to appoint a new leader to the group: "I find it incredible, and deeply troubling, that the Labour Party are again going to impose the next group leader rather than letting elected councillors choose themselves."
While community activist Michael Thawe added: "It's an absolute joke that the Starmer Labour Party NEC based in London are going to implement their own rules to ensure the next group leader (Brennan) is one who is committed to the Labour Together faction. If you're a Labour member in Birmingham you need to call out this BS."
The Labour Party declined to provide a comment or take up our offer to provide an alternative take on the impact of the CIB and the party's actions in Birmingham. Our requests for an interview with the party's West Midlands regional director Sam Donoghue was turned down on the grounds he was not a 'media facing spokesperson'.
How Labour bureaucrats took over and what happened next
Rewind to May 16 2023 and in the BirminghamLive office I'd been doing the digital equivalent of pacing around waiting for the postman. Someone from inside the Labour Party warned me to expect an 'explosive' delivery any moment.
Eventually it appeared. 'It' was an emailed, closely typed 20 page PDF report headed Birmingham Campaign Improvement Board - Report and Recommendations.
Normally internal documents like this are 'leaked' by disgruntled politicians or insiders, but not this time. I'd been told to expect a document that would ensure the demise of Labour veteran Ian Ward, who had recently narrowly fended off a leadership challenge and been re-elected as Labour leader on Birmingham City Council.
The report that landed was the work of Labour big hitters Sir Richard Leese, former leader of Manchester City Council, and Baroness Alicia Kennedy, with input from Philip Glanville, mayor of Hackney, John Lehal, previously the party's chief operating officer and Harjeet Sahota, former external comms advisor to Keir Starmer.
Birmingham Ladywood MP, now Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, a powerful member of the NEC, was said to have had a big hand in the composition of the group and had voiced her personal concerns about the local leadership.
She was also said to have commented on a draft of the report pre publication. (We put this to her office but at the time of publication we had not received a response).
The eventual report did indeed contain some toe-curling revelations and commentary on bullying, sexism, harassment, and cited a lack of openness and poor engagement with members.
It spoke of misogyny and racism between councillors, of women and people of colour feeling 'disengaged and disempowered' and relations with trade unions that were defined by 'animosity and lack of trust'.
It made uncomfortable reading and highlighted the 'dysfunctional climate' inside the divided group that I'd been writing about for months. It made a series of 60 recommendations.
But what it did not include was any clear evidence of misconduct against any named individuals, nor did the party expel Ward as a result of its findings.
But it gave the party enough reason to tear up the local democracy rule book and launch a takeover.
Ward and deputy leader Brigid Jones were soon on their way out, deposed by the party, and replaced by NEC-backed John Cotton and Sharon Thompson.
The party used the opportunity to put the local group into the equivalent of special measures, imposing top-down rules and restrictions on councillors.
Steve McCabe, then MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, was one of the few voices of dissent. He called it a 'hatchet job' that was used to 'settle personal scores'.
He said: "It was sold as something to improve the performance of Labour in Birmingham and I was on board with that. There are some valid criticisms and positive recommendations within it. But there are also allegations that are vague, there's a lack of examples and barely any mention of success. It is a hatchet job. The overall impact will do untold damage to the city and to Labour."
"Whoever is chosen to lead the city through this undemocratic process will end up without authority." Ominously he also predicted: "I have no doubt that Michael Gove will be watching this unfold and we could end up with commissioners being sent in to run the city council as a result. It is an absolutely shocking situation."
Clements, a Labour left winger and environmentalist, was cynical then and spoke out to criticise the action. She remains angry about it.
Taking away the right of elected councillors to elect their own leader showed 'a lack of respect' and damaged the authority of those who were imposed, she said.
"These Campaign Improvement Boards were set up in Birmingham and other metropolitan councils and they were supposed to be about improving campaigning (for the elections). It's ironic because in most of those places, Labour has either disappeared completely or, as in Birmingham, we've lost 80 per cent of our seats on the council.
"Some of the issues that were identified by the CIB around the culture of bullying and various allegations made were serious - but there is (little sign of) the party doing anything to follow those up. Allegations of similar behaviour continued. I can't find anything positive that resulted."
A promise of more transparency and communication had not materialised either, she said, citing news of a bin strike 'deal' just ahead of the May 7 elections as proof.
Labour councillors found out as the same time as the public that Cotton, West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker and a Labour peer had been engaged in negotiations with the union 'for months'. It did Cotton no good - he lost his seat.
Clements said: "I became a councillor in 2017 when John Clancy (then council leader) was pursuing his own agenda without reference to the council officers and that was a catastrophe. (Clancy famously struck a deal with the union during a private meeting that ended up opening up new equal pay claims).
"I couldn't believe what I was reading in the week before the election, because it was almost as though we'd gone back to 2017. Crazy."
For months councillors had been reduced to conduits for information, not equal participants in discussions, she added.
Davis agreed and had this message for the Labour's post-election group of 17 councillors: "The first thing on its agenda should be to demand the restoration of its right to run its own affairs. We've had enough control-freakery from London by those who don't know our city and its people, whether that's from national Labour or Whitehall."
The sidelining of local members and branches had also been a terrible move, said Clements.
An incentive for being a paid-up member and being involved in a local branch was to have some influence. "Obviously it's always going to be small but the basic minimum should be the chance to participate in selections of local councillors and MPs."
Instead decisions were made by an NEC panel.
Relatives and current and former staff of senior MPs in Birmingham, Shabana Mahmood, Preet Kaur Gill and Paulette Hamilton, were among the successful candidates, in some cases instead of local activists and incumbent councillors.
Hamilton's daughter Keshia Hamilton was among the new candidates who lost. She came behind Independent Rinkal Shergill, who had been a Labour councillor until being deselected to make way for Hamilton.
Neither Davis or Clements are naive enough to believe Labour in Birmingham would not have been hard hit in the May elections as a result of a national failure to address populist rhetoric and inspire trust combined with local issues.
Said Clements: "It was obvious to anybody who understood what happened in Birmingham that Labour going was going to fare really badly because of the financial collapse, the bin strike and so on.
"But it was made even worse by some of the selections and deselections, which failed to show any understanding of the local reputation of some councillors."
Some of the deselections - including David Barker in Brandwood and Kings Heath, and Fred Grindrod in Bournville and Cotteridge - were 'inexplicable', she said. The elections of former Labour councillors Shergill, Martin Brookes, Sam Forsyth and Amar Khan also showed their personal popularity had been badly misjudged.
Davis also cited the case of Barker, who he said was deselected erroneously on the grounds he had broken the whip by dissenting on library closures. He never did so, said Davis.
There was also a failure to turn plans and strategies into action, added Clements. She cited promises of action on road safety and active travel that petered out when faced with any dissent.
One example, she said, was the 'spineless' failure to introduce a pedestrianised area on Upper Highgate Street, where little Mayar Yahia died in 2024.
The family and campaigners were told the council intended to block off the route as a through road to make it safer for children - only to pull back following objections from motorists.
"The fact it wasn't done in the wake of that terrible tragedy was just shocking." She also criticised the leadership's failure to press on with a promised extension of 20mph roads.
Her parting shot was to urge the Labour government to review the entire structure of how local government operated and was scrutinised, including professionalising the councillor role to better reflect the huge responsibility it carried.
Labour Response
The Labour Party chose not to respond officially to our approach for comment, but a Labour source close to the new group said: "Former councillors who to this day refuse to accept the findings of the CIB report into Birmingham Labour are clearly part of the problem.
"Sadly they will blame everyone but themselves for the defeat. It's time to listen and reflect on the message Birmingham's voters sent to us.
"The new Labour group is committed to implementing the recommendations of the CIB and returning member democracy to Birmingham."
