It must be nearly local election time again, as the leaflets are already dropping through my letterbox! Here in Birmingham, we only have full council elections every four years, so this will be the first time since 2022 that the local electorate gets to decide who runs our city.
A lot has happened since then: the city council essentially found itself ‘bankrupt’, refuse collectors have been on strike for over a year, and of course there was a change in national government.
Strangely the incumbent Labour-controlled council still believes it is the best choice, and despite failing to do so for at least the last four years, boasts on the front page of its campaign leaflet that it is “putting Brummies first”. On the inside, there’s the usual attack on Reform, as well as urging ‘tactical voting’:
Buoyed by their recent by-election win up in Manchester, the Greens’ leaflet has a bit more of a ‘dirty tricks’ aggressive approach:
Classy! But at least their leaflet tells you who their candidates will be, though they end up resorting to cheap attacks on both Labour and Reform.
Which then brings me on to Reform’s leaflet. Once again it prominently features an image of party leader Nigel Farage, but apart from boasting about winning control of 12 councils at last year’s elections, there’s an absence of details as to how exactly Reform will fix ‘broken Birmingham’, let alone any mention of who their prospective candidates are.
It takes some ego for any party leader to have their picture on a local election leaflet.
Interestingly, I’ve not yet had any campaign leaflet from either the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats, which is why I’ve neither featured or mentioned them here. Maybe they’re going to be ‘dark horses’, or they’re just not bothering.
So far then, it seems this is a three-way fight between Labour, Reform and the Greens.
Following the previously mentioned electoral success at the Gorton & Denton by-election, the Greens must be feeling pretty confident, and it will be interesting to see how much of the “Muslim vote” they can seize from Labour, unless they come up against more ‘Gaza independents’.
Given the popularity of Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour government nationally, it would be quite surprising if Labour did retain control of Birmingham City Council, as it would be another case of “more of the same please”. But hopefully voters will be turning their back on Labour based on how they’ve been running the council, rather than making it a ‘referendum’ on the present Labour government.
As for Reform, they’re bound to do much better than last time around, but it will be interesting to see the make-up of their candidates – as well as the usual ex-UKIP lot, no doubt many will be former Conservatives, hoping to get back onto the gravy-train via a different bandwagon.
Regardless of who wins the election though, after May 7th, it will also be interesting to see how many councillors ‘disappear’ once ‘job done’…
