Peterborough's political groups meeting to determine council leadership

Political leaders in Peterborough are meeting to determine who will run the council.

A leader will be chosen in the coming days and the structure of any coalition, power sharing deal or supply and confidence agreement between parties hashed out.

Cllr Mohammed Farooq (Peterborough First, Hargate and Hempsted), who has led the council since last November, said councillors took a break over the bank holiday weekend – but now the business of determining who’ll be in charge going forward has begun in earnest at Sand Martin House.

The meetings follow last week’s local elections, which drastically changed the political makeup of Peterborough City Council (PCC).

Cllr Farooq’s party, Peterborough First, is in a strong position going into the negotiations.

It's now a party of 14 – the second largest behind Labour – having retained its four council seats up for election and won in all four wards where it stood new candidates.

“My group seems ecstatic,” Cllr Farooq said. “We had an 100 per cent return.”

Cllr Farooq also has the benefit of leadership experience, having been installed to the position after a vote of no confidence in previous leader Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald (Conservatives, West).

Labour, meanwhile, is now the largest party on PCC with 19 out of its 60 seats, having gained five after voting took place on 2nd May.

Its leader, Cllr Dennis Jones (Labour, Dogsthorpe) has previously ruled out leading a multi-party coalition and suggested a partnership with one other group, such as Peterborough First, is likely to be the most sensible course of action.

He’s also suggested he would step up to lead the council if called to do so, but has no “personal lust for glory”.

Meanwhile, the Lib Dems increased in size from a group of eight to nine, while the Greens doubled their number of seats – from two to four.

The Conservative group, which had led the council for more than 20 years until November, lost half of its seats and is now a group of 11.

Its leader, Cllr Fitzgerald, said on election night that he’s “happy to take some back seat time” in opposition.