Opposition councillors in Newcastle could wrest control of the city away from Labour “within a few years”, a Liberal Democrat chief believes.
After a dramatic few months in which divisions in the ruling party have been laid bare and long-serving council leader Nick Forbes has been ousted, opponents are hoping to capitalise on Labour’s internal turmoil at next week’s local elections. Nick Cott, leader of the city’s Lib Dem opposition, is hopeful that his party can banish the electoral spectre of the coalition government “once and for all” and says he sees similarities to the events that ultimately saw the city council turn yellow back in 2004.
Labour has a commanding majority for now, holding 52 of the council’s 78 seats, and will unquestionably remain in control after May 5. But red seats are under threat from the 20-strong Lib Dem group in the traditional swing wards of Ouseburn and North Jesmond, from the rising Newcastle Independents in the outer west of the city, and in what is being touted as a multi-party race in West Fenham.
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Coun Cott said: “While we did lose a lot of seats and support [after the coalition government was formed in 2010], we were able to keep ourselves as a strong opposition – and that took a lot of hard work on the ground. The challenge now is to show how we can represent more communities and tell them that we are still here.
"Then once you start winning seats, it reaches a tipping point. That is what happened when we last took control of the council. When I was first elected we had 15 seats, but within four years we had 43.”
He hopes that Newcastle could soon find itself in the situation Sunderland does this year, with Labour only a handful of seats away from losing overall control of the council – at which point the Lib Dems and independents could come together to form an administration of their own. Coun Cott, who believes Labour’s internal leadership battles and an “obsession” with austerity budget cuts are causing “inertia” at the civic centre, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Within a few years we could be leading an administration, that is what we are looking for.”
The opposition leader says the Lib Dems would devote more money to community budgets for tackling issues like potholes and litter, set up a new fund to support small businesses, and establish a poverty commission to come up with solutions for tackling the cost of living crisis. The Newcastle Independents have taken three seats from Labour in the battleground of the outer west over the last few years, with the community-focused party taking advantage of complaints that outlying areas of the city have been neglected compared to the city centre.
Jason Smith, who founded what was previously known as Newcastle First in 2011, said that Labour now takes their threat “much more seriously”. He added: “I very much feel that in the 11 years Labour has run the council we have not seen the city improve.
"The neighbourhood standards are significantly worse than they were with graffiti, dog muck, grass not being cut as often as it could be, roads with potholes and cracks. It just doesn’t seem to be a priority for Labour, they are too busy fighting among themselves.”
Nick Kemp, Labour’s new leader in Newcastle, has pledged a “reset” of council services like bin collections to put more focus on areas outside the city centre.
He added: “Our focus is about delivering a good quality Labour council for the voters of the city. The internal issues of the Labour group are internal and I would guess that if you looked underneath the surface of the Lib Dems or any of the opposition I am sure there are tensions and differences, as with any political party.
“We have set out a clear agenda with our manifesto and what you see if you look on social media is a very active, campaigning Labour group who are solidly behind the manifesto.”
