Liverpool Labour to appoint new leader while mayor in post

Liverpool City Council voted to return to a leader and cabinet model in May

A new Labour group leader will be appointed at Liverpool City Council in December before Joanne Anderson steps down as mayor.

Ms Anderson, who has held the post since 2021, has previously said she would not stand for re-election in May.

The new group leader will focus on Labour's local election campaign.

Ms Anderson said the "additional leadership will enable me to have a razor-sharp focus on delivering improvements".

Nominations for the new group leader will close on Friday, with hustings events between shortlisted candidates taking place before their appointment on 5 December, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Ms Anderson said the Labour group had discussed the benefit "of bringing in an additional leader now" to lead the Labour campaign while she leads the city.

"My role as mayor remains unchanged, but this additional leadership will enable me to have a razor-sharp focus on delivering improvements and putting policies in place that truly benefit the people of Liverpool," she said.

She added that she would be "concentrating on delivering transformations to services in order to set a balanced budget".

Joanne Anderson has previously said she will not stand for local elections in May

Ms Anderson had pledged to hold a city-wide referendum on whether to scrap the mayoralty during her election campaign, however she and the council then chose to hold a cheaper public consultation.

The mayoral system was controversially scrapped by councillors in July, despite the public consultation which showed people wanted to keep the directly-elected mayoral system.

Earlier this November, the government brought in a fifth commissioner to oversee functions at the city's council.

Commissioners were first appointed in 2021 over what parliament heard was a "serious breakdown of governance".

The authority was also criticised after it failed to renew some contracts, leading to expected losses of millions of pounds.

Analysis

Claire Hamilton, BBC Radio Merseyside political reporter

Liverpool politics is set to get more confusing.

From early December the Labour group - the biggest group on the council - will have a new leader.

All sounds straightforward, until you realise that the elected Labour mayor Joanne Anderson will be in post until the local elections in May.

So - which one of them is going to be making the decisions?

Politically, the Labour group will want to focus on what is likely to be a tricky election - every single seat on the council is up for grabs, and the electoral map has been redrawn with brand new wards.

So the new group leader will be driving that campaign.

But - especially with such a tough budget to push through this year - there's a big danger of clashes between the mayor and the group leader, even though they are both Labour politicians - one wanting to avoid an unpopular budget in order to win elections, the other determined to see their budget passed.

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