The most finely-balanced of the capital’s seven No Overall Control council election outcomes – nine if you include Croydon and Newham despite them having executive Mayors at their helm – was Barnet.
The Conservatives had been hoping to regain control there, having lost it to Labour in 2022, but they didn’t quite make it. As a result, Barnet’s 63 council seats have been filled as follows:
- Conservative 31
- Labour 31
- Green 1
Which party, then, will be in charge?
On the evening of 19 May, next Tuesday, the first full council meeting of the new four-year term is due to take place at Hendon Town Hall (pictured).
The agenda shows (below) that the election for the appointment of the council leader is the third item on the agenda, after Prayer and Apologies for Absence.
Item four is the election of the borough’s civic mayor, a job of key importance in resolving this No Overall Control scenario, because its responsibilities include chairing full meetings of the council.
Both the Conservative group of councillors and the Labour group can be expected to be nominating their leaders – respectively, Peter Zinkin and the still-current leader Barry Rawlings – to be appointed leader the council for the start of the new term.
Assuming all 31 Tories and all 31 Labourites are present for the leadership appointment part of the meeting, we can, of course, expect that they will vote for their own candidate. And you will already have worked out out that such a situation would leave the lone Green councillor, a woman called Charli Thompson, in a position of considerable power.
If she votes for the Conservatives’ choice to be leader, he will, by a margin of 32 to 31, become the council’s leader.
If she votes for the Labour nominee, she will keep him in place as leader, again by 32 votes to 31, a majority of one.
But what if – as seems very possible – she abstains? That would leave the council in deadlock at 31 votes each. So how would a decision be made?
A tie-break solution would lie in the hands of the civic mayor. It is a role allocated to a serving borough councillor on a one-year basis, and being an impartial chair of meeting of the full council is one of its main responsibilities. With that responsibility comes a certain power – the power to use a casting vote to break the deadlock if a full council vote end in a draw.
The Mayor of Barnet at the moment, and as for the past year, is Danny Rich, who, on 7 May, was re-elected for West Finchley ward. Rich is a Labour councillor. With the election for Mayor of Barnet scheduled to take place after the appointment of the council leader, he is due to be chairing the full council meeting while the leadership decision is taken. If called upon to exercise his casting vote, the likelihood would seem to be that he wouldn’t use it to instal the Conservative candidate as council leader.
Of course, as we have seen, it might not come to that. After all, Green councillor Thompson could, at least in theory, confound expectations by taking sides with one or other of her opponent parties for some reason. That said, the chances of either the Conservative or the Labour group seeking or even wanting her support appear slim.
Jewish News has reported that Thompson has confirmed previously being a member of the Chipping Barnet Constituency Labour Party and a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, and that she declined to discuss past social media posts on the subject of antisemitism. Barnet famously contains the largest number of Jews of any local authority in England, some of whom have lately been victims of violent antisemitic attacks.
Conclusion? The odds appear to be on Barnet Council continuing to be led by a Labour politician from 19 May – and, for the very same reasons, continuing to have a Labour councillor as civic mayor chairing full council meeting, bringing their casting vote into play as and when required.
That’s not to say things will definitely turn out that way. One or more councillors might not turn up, thereby altering the delicate arithmetic. Procedural issues previously unthought of could disrupt the scenario described above. One week from now, all will have become clear – or perhaps unclear, as the case may be.
Follow Dave Hill on Bluesky and at LinkedIn.
OnLondon.co.uk is funded by sales of publisher and editor Dave Hill’s twice-weekly newsletter On London Extra. To receive it, become a paying subscriber to Dave’s personal Substack. Thanks.
You must be logged in to post a comment.