Newcastle’s political establishment has been rocked to the core after the city’s council leader suffered a landslide defeat that puts his future in severe jeopardy.
Nick Forbes, who has headed the Labour-run local authority since 2011, was heavily beaten in a party selection battle in his Arthur’s Hill ward on Tuesday night.
The loss means that he will not be eligible to stand for re-election as a councillor this May, unless he can be parachuted into an alternative seat elsewhere in the city.
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And even if he were to do that, there would still be major doubts over whether he could hold onto his position as leader – having already faced a challenge last year and seen his long-serving deputy ousted.
Sources within the Labour Party told ChronicleLive that Coun Forbes lost 13-4 on Tuesday night, in a vote among party members, to local activist Abdul Samad.
It was also suggested that Coun Forbes may seek to have the result overturned.
The 48-year-old is a prominent national figure in Labour’s local government ranks, leading the party’s group on the Local Government Association, and is a centrist ally of Sir Keir Starmer.
He is also chair of the Convention of the North, which he spoke at in Liverpool just hours before his stunning defeat on Tuesday evening.
But internal party divisions have threatened his political future in Newcastle for the last few years.
He had survived a leadership challenge after last May’s local elections, managing to hold off rival Nick Kemp.
But his long-standing deputy, Joyce McCarty, did lose her position to Karen Kilgour.
He also failed to secure Labour’s nomination to be North of Tyne mayor in 2019, losing out to Jamie Driscoll – then a rookie councillor from the Corbynite wing of the party.
A city Labour source said that Mr Samad is thought of as being more left wing than Coun Forbes, though was not considered to be a part of Momentum, and that he promised at Tuesday’s branch meeting to make the Arthur’s Hill ward his sole priority if elected.
If Coun Forbes’ time as council leader is coming to a close, it would mark the end of an era at the civic centre.
He has led the city Labour group since 2007 and became council leader in 2011, when the party took back control from the Liberal Democrats.
During his tenure as leader, he helped secure the region’s first devolution deal for the North of Tyne.
He has also set Newcastle an ambitious target of reaching net zero emissions by 2030 and has been an advocate for major transformation policies, such as the planned pedestrianisation of Grey Street.
Much of his reign has been spent battling major budget cuts from central government, which have led the council to slash more than £300m of spending over the past decade.
Coun Forbes has been contacted for a comment. More to follow.
